American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology featured TEAM UP’s approach to integrated behavioral health care in its 2026 Trends Report, “What’s ahead for psychology? 9 trends to watch in 2026.” In the Monitor’s article on integrated care trend, “Psychologists are reimagining how society supports children,” Anita Morris, MSN, executive director, TEAM UP, provided insight on TEAM UP’s model of integrated behavioral healthcare effectiveness.

Excerpted from “Psychologists are reimagining how society supports children,” by Zara Adams, APA’s Monitor on Psychology, 2026. Read the full article here.

More effective integrated care

Transforming childhood mental health requires meeting families where they are—and for many, that’s a pediatrician’s office.

“Most parents say that when they’re concerned about their kids’ mental health needs, the first place they go is to their child’s physician,” Hostutler said. “But when we ask physicians about mental health, they say they don’t have the time or training to meet those needs.”

Integrating psychological care into primary care improves children’s quality of life and behavioral health symptoms and greatly increases their access to care, Hostutler has found (Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Vol. 50, No. 7, 2025; Pediatrics, Vol. 156, No. 2, 2025). The practice isn’t new, but recent advances are making it even more effective.

Transforming and Expanding Access to Mental Health Care Universally in Pediatrics, or TEAM UP, is an integrated behavioral health model developed at Boston Medical Center (BMC) that equips primary-care practices to address the full spectrum of mental, behavioral, and social health issues, from birth through young adulthood. Patients are screened at all well-child visits and given prompt access to care in the clinic or through referrals as needed.

Each TEAM UP partnership includes a behavioral health clinician and a community health worker—a combination that allows clinicians to focus on therapy while community health workers link families to external resources. The team typically serves practices of around 3,000 patients, far fewer than some integrated care models where one provider covers up to 10,000 patients. The latter approach practically guarantees that only children with urgent or acute needs will get attention, said Anita Morris, MSN, executive director of the TEAM UP Scaling & Sustainability Center, a part of BMC.

“Hiring a therapist and bringing them into primary care is not in itself a fully integrated model,” she said, because behavioral health needs are not always addressed in a reliably systematic way.

Research shows that TEAM UP reduces behavioral health symptoms and improves engagement and health care utilization (Kim, J., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 8, No. 9, 2025; Kim, J., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023). Since 2024, the TEAM UP Center has helped seven Massachusetts practices adopt the model through clinical training and implementation support. The center also conducts research on the program’s outcomes and advocates for policy changes to better support integrated care, including reimbursement for community health workers.

Read the full article here.