ACCESS Behavioral Health Lab

About the Team

The ACCESS (Adolescent and Child Centered Engagement to Supports and Services) Behavioral Health Lab at Children’s Mercy conducts research on increasing access to behavioral health services for youth. All of our studies are rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles. We use culturally grounded initiatives to address unmet behavioral health needs and disparities in access to care, especially among youth from racially, ethnically, and sociodemographically disadvantaged groups.

Examples of research from our lab include developing and implementing a family/care navigation model to help patients get connected to needed behavioral health services. We have a study called the PATHWAY (Promoting Access To Healthy Well-Being Across Youth) Behavioral Health Program. It uses a community-engaged research approach that includes partnering with the Children’s Mercy Mental Health and El Consejo de Familias Latinas/Hispanas Parent Faculty Advisory Councils (PFACs) to develop the program and its care navigation support intervention process. The PATHWAY Behavioral Health program research is funded through the Katharine B. Richardson award and the Children’s Mercy Diversity Scholar award.

Other projects in our lab involve researching the development and impact of a pediatric integrated behavioral health program in an inner-city primary care setting. We typically employ a retrospective, comparative design to analyze this program development research which includes tailoring and evaluating culturally responsive pathways to behavioral health service access through integrated primary care for sociodemographically diverse groups.

We welcome students to apply to join the ACCESS Behavioral Health Lab as research assistants if they are interested in engaging in DEI-based or behavioral health access research.