Developing Skills for Developmental Disabilities: Pre-Clinical Elective Experience Demonstrates Reproducible Results

Abstract

receiving a developmental assessment was 27.6 weeks. Mean age of children receiving a developmental assessment was 7.0 years. With respect to mental health impact, 55.9% presented to the school clinic with at least one mental health concern, 13.6% received a new mental health diagnosis including at least one of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, or selective mutism, and 25.7% of the children received a referral to a psychiatrist or psychologist. The wait-time for receiving a mental health diagnosis was 27.1 weeks. CONCLUSION: School-Based Health Clinics are an effective and feasible model to decrease wait-times for receiving developmental assessments and to provide mental health services to inner-city children.