DC MAP stands for District of Columbia Mental Health Access in Pediatrics

DC MAP is a child mental health access program that provides the following services:

• Primary care clinician telephone consultation with child mental health specialists
• Community resource referrals and face-to-face consultations as clinically indicated
• Mental health education and training in primary care
• Child mental health resource guide maintenance
• Quarterly medication reviews flagged by the Psychotropic Monitoring Group

DC MAP is geared towards pediatric primary care providers, including (but not limited to) pediatricians, family physicians, pediatric/family nurse practitioners, and pediatric/family physician's assistants. DC MAP also allows consultations from other professionals working with primary care providers, such as integrated social workers, psychologists or psychiatrists. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to provide support to others outside of primary care, though we would direct others to the resource guide available at www.dchealthcheck.net DC MAP is intended to serve providers working in or providing services to children who live in the District of Columbia. DC MAP works closely with Maryland's BHIPP program (http://www.mdbhipp.org/) and Virginia's VMAP program (http://vmapforkids.org/), which serve providers working in or serving children in Maryland and Virginia, respectively. DC MAP is not intended to be used by families.

Unfortunately, families cannot call DC MAP directly as this is outside the scope of our work. When families call, we encourage them to consult with their child's pediatrician. 

Individual providers wishing to enroll in DC MAP can complete the following Provider Enrollment Form.  We also request that a main point person from each practice enrolls the practice by completing the following Practice Enrollment Form. Providers can enroll even if their practice is not currently enrolled. For questions about enrollment or to see if your practice is enrolled, please contact us. 

Yes, providers must enroll in DC MAP and we request that re-enroll annually. Enrollment forms provide us with information about who is using our services and what impact DC MAP has on the community.  To ensure up-to-date information and timely reporting of program evaluation outcomes to our funders, we request annual re-enrollment.  We appreciate your willingness to complete these forms! 

DC MAP services are intended for providers enrolled in the program.  However, we understand that there may be cases in which a provider wants to use DC MAP without having first enrolled.  We will accept calls from these providers but we will work closely with providers following the consultation to ensure that they enroll as soon as possible.

We are eager to make site visits to introduce ourselves, discuss DC MAP, and enroll practices and providers.  If you would like to schedule a site visit, please email Yanique Williams (yaniquew@pavingthewaymsi.org). 

Callers may receive a voicemail during business hours if all DC MAP clinicians are attending to another consultation.  If you receive a voicemail, please leave a message and include information about how to contact you. We closely monitor voicemails and will return your call within 30 minutes of your message.

Callers contacting DC MAP when the office is closed are welcomed to leave a secure voicemail.  A member of the DC MAP team will contact you about the call as soon as possible on the next business day (or at the day/time requested by the caller).

DC MAP is a consultation service and is not a crisis/emergency support service.  If your patient/family is in crisis, please take appropriate steps to ensure theirs safety, including calling 9-1-1, calling a local crisis line, like CHAMPS )202.481.1440), or sending the patient/family to the nearest emergency department. Please note that we do not check voicemail during hours/days when DC MAP is closed.

When you call, we will ask questions about yourself, including your name, NPI#, and contact information verification. IF you are not already enrolled in DC MAP, we will ask a few additional demographic questions. We then ask if the call is about a specific child (versus a global question).  If it is pertaining to a specific child, so, we will gather some basic demographic information, including child's name, DOB, and insurance coverage. We ask all callers to provide a brief description about why they are calling to better direct the call.  During the consultation, we will likely ask some additional clarifying questions (e.g., medications the child takes, past service history), but these questions may vary across calls.

We retain data about providers and children so if you have contracted t he line before or if you are calling back about a specific child, we should have data on file that we would just need to verify.

We accept calls about any topic related to mental or developmental health, substance use, and issues that may impact child's mental health (e., parental depression, domestic violence).  Providers are invited to call about specific children or about general topics (e.g., medication use). This is a consultation service and not a crisis/emergency support service. Consultants cannot make abuse reports nor provide forensic, safety, child custody, and/or educational assessments and recommendations. Consultants will also not do liaison work on behalf of PCP's like calling schools or outside providers.  However, consultants will strive to ensure that all callers be connected with appropriate resources so when in doubt, please call us and we can direct you to more appropriate resources if we are not the right one.  For example, we can provide information about who to call to receive more appropriate resources or we can advise you on what questions to ask, rating scales to use, etc.

Our services are limited to patients 21 years of age and younger. However, as with other questions outside of the scope of DC MAP, we will do our best to ensure that you are connected with appropriate resources.

In most cases, providers calling DC MAP will first speak with the care coordinator.  She will gather some preliminary information (e.g., provider information, child demographic information, nature of the call).  The care coordinator will then determine which DC MAP team member may be most appropriate for the call.  In cases in which it is a care coordination/resource question alone, the care coordinator will answer if herself. However, in other cases, you may be transferred to the DC MAP on-call psychiatrist or mental health therapist (social worker or psychologist) depending on the nature of the call and DC MAP provider availability.

In certain circumstances, the MAP team may determine that additional face-to-face or telephone support with the family is required.  The goal is to link families with needed resources within primary care or the community in as timely a manner as possible so only a minority of calls will result in this interim follow-up.  Calls that may be eligible for this follow-up include instances in which it is unclear from the call what the best course of action would be, instances in which the child can be managed in primary care, but requires consultation from someone who has seen the child, and instances in which a family requires more care coordination support to connect with services.  DC MAP providers serve as consultants and therefore will not take over ongoing care management or prescribe medications

DC MAP offers time-limited follow-up with selected families via phone or via face-to-face consultations. DC MAP family telephone contact may occur in cases in which the family requires brief support around connecting with and coordinating community-based services.  Families seen for face-to-face visits will be seen by DC MAP clinicians at Paving the Way MSi.  Most families would only be seen for one face-to-face visit, though in some very rare instances, the DC Map team may provide brief bridge support until the family is connected with other services.

Patients referred for a face-to-face consultation will go to Paving the Way MSi.  The location of appointments will be determined by the interest and proximity of the patients to the clinic (e.g., if the child lives near one place or already receives care somewhere), DC MAP clinician appointment availability, and the nature of the presenting concern.  We will do our best to ensure that we meet each family's preferences while also striving to get them in as soon as possible with a clinician who can best address their needs.

The DC MAP team will provide you with the information you need to make appropriate referrals, but our assistance does not expedite or change the process for connecting with PTW-MSI psychiatry and psychology departments.

A follow-up note will be sent to you within 2 business days of your call to DC MAP and within 1 week of any visits or contact we have with families. This note will summarize the recommendations discussed.

For more information, about DC MAP, please contact Yanique Williams, DC MAP Supervisor (yaniquew@pavingthewaymsi.org; 1-844-303-2627).  For more information about other mental health access programs, please see the National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Program website (www.nncpap.org).

DC Map is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. DC MAP is closed on the following holidays:

New Year's Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Presidents Day

Memorial Day

Independence Day

Labor Day

Columbus Day

Veterans Day

Thanksgiving

Christmas Day

Yes, providers can request a specific call-back time. Please indicate in your communication with DC MAP when and how best to contact you and we will do our best to get in touch as requested.

DC MAP is a child mental health access program that provides the following services:

1. Primary care clinician telephone consultation with child mental health specialists
2. Community resource referrals and face-to-face consultations as clinically indicated
3. Mental health education and training in primary care
4. Child mental health resource guide maintenance
5. Quarterly medication reviews flagged by the Psychotropic Monitoring Group