Behavioral Health At Highlands Integrative Pediatrics
Welcome to the Behavioral Health Team at HIP!
Behavioral Health (also called mental or emotional health) is an integral part of your child’s healthy development. We offer behavioral health services at HIP as part of your child’s primary care. Our focus is to provide proactive prevention focused care and early intervention to address any emotional or behavioral challenges that may occur. We ask that your child is an established patient at HIP so their behavioral health needs can be coordinated with your PCP.
Our behavioral health team provides consultative services during clinic visits as well as individual appointments with our experienced clinicians. We use a generalist approach to address a child’s emotional/behavioral challenges and the impact of those challenges on the family. We believe that by building strengths and focusing on resilience, all children and families have the capacity to live emotionally healthy lives.
Our behavioral health team can address any number of emotional and behavioral health issues that arise in childhood including:
• Developmental delays or differences
• Concerns regarding attention,
focus and hyperactivity (ADHD or executive function
challenges)
• Learning or school concerns
• Difficulties
with eating, sleeping, toileting
• Behavior concerns including tantrums
and aggression
• Anxiety, worries, or obsessive thoughts/behaviors
•
Sadness and depressed mood
• Trauma responses including post-traumatic
stress disorder
• Self-harm and/or suicidal ideation
• Grief
or loss
• Postpartum or family stress/coping
Your child does not need to have an established diagnosis to seek behavioral health services. Our goal is to identify and provide support for behavioral challenges any time they are interfering with your child’s or family’s wellbeing. Research consistently demonstrates that early intervention for mental health concerns leads to better individual, family and community outcomes.
What to Expect
We offer support and intervention to
target specific concerns. Your PCP may have us step in during your child’s
visit or may make a referral for us to follow up later. You may also request
to see one of our Behavioral Health Consultants (BHC) during your child’s
visit if you have concerns you would like to discuss.
Whether you self-refer or are referred by your PCP, you will be contacted by phone to determine next steps. The next steps may be to schedule an appointment with one of our BHCs for a consultation regarding your concerns, or an intake appointment for your child. We prefer to meet with parents alone when the child is eight or younger, and may request it for our older patients as well.
Visits and interventions are individualized and tailored to your child’s/family’s specific needs. Appointments with the BHC may involve any of the following:
• Consultation during well child visits –
when the BHC is available, they will provide
support during well child visits for any behavioral
health/parenting/support needs that
arise. If not available, your PCP will help develop a follow-up plan to ensure
your concerns are addressed.
•
First Visit/Consultation- typically a 30 to 60 minute screening by phone or in-person
to identify behavioral health needs and to determine if services at HIP
or in the
community are more appropriate for your child and family.
•
Behavioral Health follow-up visits – regularly scheduled
visits with the BHC to work on issues identified
during the consultation. This is what would be considered
traditional
outpatient therapy. These are typically 50 minute sessions.
Because our focus is on short term, solution focused care, we do not provide long-term outpatient therapy, intensive therapeutic services, substance use treatment, or cognitive/academic psychological evaluations. We are happy to support your family in connecting to these services by providing care coordination and referral to community resources.
Treatment Models
We implement an eclectic or generalist
approach to addressing emotional and behavioral health concerns that is
tailored to each child’s/family’s needs. Our behavioral health team is trained
to provide care using a number of evidence-based modalities, including but not
limited to: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing
(MI), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Solution Focused
Therapy.
Billing/Insurance
We intend to make behavioral health
services as accessible as possible. Our providers are licensed and
credentialed with the insurance plans listed below:
• Medicaid (all plans except Denver Health)
• Aetna
• Anthem
•
Blue Cross/Blue Shield (any state)
• CHP+
• Cigna
• United
Healthcare
Because every insurance carrier varies in their coverage of behavioral health services, and because the specifics of each plan may be different, we encourage you to speak directly with your plan provider regarding covered benefits, deductibles and co-pays prior to engaging in services through HIP.
Behavioral Health Team
Karen Umemoto
Director of Behavioral Health
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Hello! I am excited to be joining HIP as the Director of
Behavioral Health. I am an LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) with many
years of experience working with kids, teens and families. I have worked in
inpatient medical as well as outpatient medical and behavioral health settings
in urban and rural communities in Colorado. I am very strongly committed to
health promotion and providing support to kids and families as early as
possible to grow their resilience and overall well-being.
Although I have worked with all population groups, I especially enjoy working
with young children and their families. Parenting at any stage is a daunting
experience, and my hope is to help guide and support that process for the kids
and families at HIP.
As a social worker I am very committed to equity,
diversity and social justice and ensuring that all of our kids and families
are connected to appropriate resources and care in the community. I am a
Denver native who grew up in this neighborhood and appreciate the struggles of
those who established it.
I appreciate being given the opportunity
to get to know the kids and families here at HIP and look forward to being
part of your wellness journey.
Rosa Najera
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
I received my Masters in Social Work from the University of Nebraska, and continue to find spaces where therapy can be reimagined in a way that serves people in being their best selves. I’m excited to have landed at HIP, and to work with children and families wherever they are in life’s journey.
I practice from the understanding that our mental health and social identities are affected by institutional oppression. Continuing to challenge the status quo is integral to my practice as a clinical social worker. I am motivated by the youth and hope for what the future can be, and look forward to supporting children and teens in their self-exploration.
I enjoy being creative and making art feel accessible. I look forward to bringing creative energies into the therapy space. A little about me is that I like to paint and look at art, spend time with my partner and our cat, read about astrology, and ride my bicycle.
HealthySteps Program at HIP
HealthySteps, a program of ZERO TO THREE, is an evidence-based, team-based pediatric primary care program that promotes the health, well-being and school readiness of babies and toddlers, with an emphasis on families living in low-income communities.
Babies’ brains grow faster from ages 0-3 than any point in life and pediatric primary care is a trusted source of information for parents during these critical years. Yet, pediatric primary care physicians have an impossibly long list of services to provide during a well-child visit that can last just 15 minutes. HealthySteps provides tailored support for common and complex concerns that physicians often lack time to address, such as: behavior, sleep, feeding, attachment, parental depression, social determinants of health, and adapting to life with a baby or toddler. The entire practice works together to implement the HealthySteps model, with leadership from a Physician Champion and a child development professional, known as a HealthySteps Specialist, integrated into the primary care team. HealthySteps Specialists connect with families and guide them during and between well-child visits. A multi-site randomized controlled trial, as well as other more recent site-level studies of HealthySteps, have demonstrated positive outcomes for children, their families, and the physicians and practices that serve them. Visit healthysteps.org to learn more.