UC San Diego

Lay abstract

Children with autism frequently experience co-occurring mental health needs. The "Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care (ATTAIN)" model was co-created with caregivers, pediatric providers, and health care leaders to identify mental health needs and link to mental health care for autistic children. This article describes outcomes from a pilot study of Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care with 36 pediatric primary care providers from seven clinics within three healthcare systems. Providers participated in an initial Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care training and received ongoing online support over 4 months with autistic patients ages 4-16 years old. Survey and interview assessments measured provider perceptions of feasibility, acceptability, and intentions to continue using Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care after the pilot. Providers reported that Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care was feasible, acceptable, that the initial training was helpful in their implementation but that more specific and tailored implementation support was needed. Results show that Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care is a promising model to support mental health screening and linkage for children with autism in primary care. Findings provide information on specific areas of the Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care model that could be benefit from additional refinement to support more widespread use in primary care settings.