This project seeks to determine whether integrating enhanced behavior therapy into primary care practice can improve access to treatment and patient-centered outcomes for low-income, racial/ethnic minority families of children with ADHD. We will conduct the study within the primary care network of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) where research suggests that 7.5% of patients ages 5 to 11 have a diagnosis of ADHD.

Our team will compare enhanced behavior therapy integrated into primary care to usual course of treatment for ADHD, which is informed by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines. Patients in usual care can also access Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids services, if the families elect to do so.  Providers from CHOP’s Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids program, which integrates behavioral health providers within primary care teams, will deliver the enhanced behavior therapy that will include components to address the unique needs of low-income families of racial/ethnic minority status.

There are several differences between usual Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids treatment of ADHD and the enhanced intervention. First, families in the enhanced intervention have access to a Community Health Partner, who helps them remember to practice strategies they learn in the program plus supports their regular attendance at sessions. Second, clinicians who deliver the enhanced intervention receive supervision with performance feedback. Third, sessions in the enhanced intervention are longer, and families likely will attend more sessions.

The study is designed to improve family use of services for ADHD, reduce children’s symptoms of ADHD, and improve children’s academic achievement, behavioral compliance, interpersonal relationships and life satisfaction. Parents of children with ADHD and the clinicians who serve them identified these outcomes as critical targets for intervention.