The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, established with historic funding by the Texas Legislature, aims to improve access to mental health care across Texas and reduce the impact of untreated mental illness. The Consortium engaged the CHC as a major strategic partner for targeted communication and outreach support and partnerships for three statewide programs:

• Child Psychiatry Access Program (CPAN), a clinician-to-clinician program providing mental health consultation, education, and resource support for pediatricians and other health clinicians. Over 13,000 children are enrolled in CPNA/Peri-Pan as of summer 2024, and nearly 40,000 consultations have been completed.
• Perinatal Psychiatry Access Program (PeriPAN), a mental health consultation program for clinicians serving pregnant and postpartum patients, launched statewide in fall 2023 as an extension of CPAN.
• Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT), a short-term mental health care program available to school districts to identify, assess, and address the behavioral health needs of students in grades 1-12. Nearly 70% of Texas school districts are enrolled as of summer 2024, with services available to over 4 million students.

The CHC aims to enhance meaningful use of CPAN and PeriPAN by Texas health clinicians, foster school participation in TCHATT, and strengthen the Consortium's leadership role in the state. This effort seeks to improve access to mental and behavioral health care for women and children amid the national mental health crisis, specialist shortages — especially in rural areas of Texas — and long waits for care statewide.

Our approach to each program starts with a comprehensive discovery phase, reviewing materials and conducting in-depth formative research with stakeholders. This helps us understand program operations, communication strategies, audience insights, and areas for innovation, leading to targeted messaging for health clinicians across specialties, school counselors and staff, parents and students, and potential partners.

We collaborate with program and Consortium leadership from The University of Texas System, Baylor College of Medicine, and 12 medical schools that serve as regional program hubs.

Through continuous evaluation and environmental scans, we highlight program excellence, identify thought leadership opportunities, and adapt to audience needs and program priorities. We provide strategic guidance, execute communication strategies, and produce targeted materials.