Why the behavioral health industry needs to shift focus, per Dr. John Walkup

John Walkup, MD, chair of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, presents the case for prioritizing the treatment and understanding of anxiety disorders.

Dr. Walkup recently shared insight with Becker's on the need to make anxiety disorder treatment a national priority. 

Editor's note: This piece was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.

Q: What aspect of behavioral healthcare in the U.S. should be prioritized right now? 

Dr. John Walkup: Elevating the understanding of anxiety disorders as significantly impairing conditions. 

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends screening in patients 8 to 65 years of age, which is a step in the right direction.

Anxiety disorders have the earliest onset of the internalizing conditions. The level of impairment from anxiety can be significant, and it often gets misdiagnosed as another medical condition, psychiatric disorder, or simply doesn't get diagnosed at all. This leads to unnecessary procedures and potentially dangerous interventions.

Anxiety is probably the most prevalent condition, but has [for too long] been overshadowed by depression advocacy. Not that depression isn't important, but it is less prevalent and has a later age of onset.

We need to address the challenges pediatric providers are experiencing when trying to implement behavioral health programming in their practice settings. Resolving issues like allowing enough time to properly treat patients, reimbursement problems and proper training on anxiety disorders.

Finally, we need to unleash collaborative care billing codes to expand the routes by which pediatric providers, internists and more can pursue consultation from psychiatric providers. Right now, there are limited approaches to collaborative care that would allow for a psychiatric provider to get paid to support primary care providers. This severely restricts one of the most potent approaches to improving access to basic mental healthcare.

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