In May, Mollie Forrester, LICSW, will highlight our department’s leadership in adult psychiatry access when she presents on the Psychiatry Consultation Line (PCL) at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Francisco. Forrester and PCL Medical Director, Ryan Kimmel, MD are part of a national consortium of adult psychiatric consultation lines. Only four states in the U.S. currently operate or are close to launching adult psychiatry consultation lines — compared with many more that have pediatric or perinatal programs — positioning Washington as an early adopter and model for adult-focused access.

Forrester’s co-presenters include faculty psychiatrists and fellow consortium members from the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. The title of their presentation is “Branching Out: The Evolution of Psychiatry Access Programs Across the Lifespan” and Forrester will showcase the history of the PCL and outcomes data that demonstrates the program’s impact and growing reach. As noted in a recent program audit by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC), community providers who consult with the PCL were overwhelmingly satisfied with the consultation lines and that psychiatrists offered excellent, evidence-based, and timely guidance enabling same-day treatment decisions.

The PCL has been utilized by providers in 38 of 39 counties in WA, with the highest per-capita call rates in areas with the fewest psychiatrists, underscoring PCL’s role in reducing geographic inequities. The PCL has also expanded its work in consultations on medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) through developing and sharing buprenorphine induction algorithms, free online training, and MOUD specific clinical consultations thanks to the leadership of Jonathan Buchholz, MD, the director of our Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship.

The PCL is staffed by a team of Mental Health Navigators and more than fifty department faculty. Thanks to the hard work of this amazing team, the PCL is reducing barriers to mental health and substance use care across Washington state. They provide support for providers, serve as a safety net, and use every consult as a teaching opportunity for our colleagues across the state.