A new partnership could help students in Yakima County get faster access to a family doctor and prescription medicine for mental health issues.

This summer, Educational Service District 105 teamed up with Astria Health and Selah-based Dr. Charles Bulfinch, a family practitioner. Bulfinch said even before the pandemic, he had started seeing a more younger patients, many of them kids, struggling with mental health. Knowing how difficult it is to access specialists to prescribe the necessary medication, Bulfinch decided to open his practice to students sent to him by the school district.

A parent scheduling an appointment with both a mental health professional and a doctor able to prescribe medicine can expect to wait weeks or even months for appointments to open up, Bulfinch said. The ESD 105-Astria partnership can cut down on those wait times. ESD 105 is regional service agency that assists school districts in the region.

So far, 11 schools in districts such as Yakima, Granger, Mabton, Selah and Mt. Adams are participating. Wapato and Toppenish middle schools are expected to join soon, according to ESD 105.

Though he has only worked with four students since the partnership started, Bulfinch said he expects he will see more kids as the school year goes on. He attributed the slow start to the effort starting in the summer when many kids are out of school.

Bulfinch connected with ESD 105 through his sister-in-law who works with the organization. They talked about grant initiatives the agency was pursuing to improve access to mental health care for students.

“They recognized those needs for health care access,” Bulfinch said. “My sister-in-law asked me if I would be interested in providing care to the student in the school district for mental health issues and from there grew this idea of how we could provide more of this care.”

He started working with ESD 105 staff including Hope Baker, a student assistance program manager. She has spent the last three years working on breaking down barriers to health care for students.

Students seeking care through ESD 105 have access to mental health clinicians able to recommend treatment for diagnoses like ADHD, anxiety and depression. What’s more difficult is finding a doctor and scheduling a visit to get the recommended medication.

In the partnership, ESD 105 staff members connect kids with mental health professionals, and once treatment is recommended, staff members help families quickly schedule telehealth appointments with Bulfinch. He deals with onboarding paperwork and with billing the family’s insurance so appointments and medications can be approved as quickly as possible.

Since much of ESD 105’s work with students and their mental health is grant funded, Baker said kids don’t need health insurance to see mental health professionals. When it comes time to see a doctor, however, she said the district works with students to find ways of getting them access to insurance.

This includes connecting them with Astria’s health insurance navigators, who can help families apply for affordable health care.

Much of the work being done by both parties is routine. The partnership helps families and students navigate through the complicated parts of scheduling appointments, billing insurance and securing quick access to doctors like Bulfinch.

“We’re just helping facilitate that access so that young people have an easier time getting access to medication that’s part of their care,” Baker said.

Bulfinch said Friday is usually his day dedicated to seeing patients sent to him by the district. He schedules mostly telehealth calls, as he says they can be more convenient for his patients and are quicker to set up.

“From the small number of cases I’ve had to far, I’d say we were able to provide care to students who typically couldn’t receive the care or it would have taken them longer to get it,” Bulfinch said. “Now that the kids are back in school, I’m hoping the counselors will be able to direct them my way in larger numbers.”

While the current caseload is enough for just him to handle, Bulfinch says he sees a bright future for the new partnership.

“I look forward to the day when we’re helping enough people that we need to bring out some more providers,” Bulfinch said.