2. Explain the purpose and development of the patient journey map, including the application of human-centered design principles and stakeholder collaboration with military families.
3. Describe the opportunities highlighted by the journey map for stakeholders to alleviate barriers to access care for military-connected youth and families seeking MEDB care.
There is a growing youth mental health crisis in the United States, occurring amid a critical shortage of specialists trained to treat pediatric mental health, emotional, developmental, and/or behavioral disorders (MEDB). Military-connected youth report higher mental health and specialty healthcare needs than their civilian counterparts. Military family mobility, parental physical and psychological injuries and illnesses, and family separation are associated with family stress and increased risk for adverse family functioning and mental health outcomes. Military life events also create unique barriers to access care, frustration with help-seeking, and higher needs for care coordination. Despite multiple reports from military families of the complexity and difficulty of accessing care, to date, there is little understanding of the complete journey that families encounter when navigating diagnosis and care for a special healthcare need. Accordingly, the Department of Defense Child Collaboratory (DODCC) was established in 2021 to improve MEDB health needs of military-connected youth by leveraging digital health tools, academic-community partnerships, and interdisciplinary research collaborations. A stakeholder engagement group of military parents of children with MEDB guides the research and design efforts of the DODCC. We present a patient journey map developed collaboratively by the stakeholder engagement group and the research team, based on the principles of human-centered design. The journey map depicts empirically supported barriers to accessing mental health and developmental care within the Military Health System, with a case example that tracks a family’s healthcare journey from initial awareness of a MEDB concern through the process of assessment and multidisciplinary care, amid military life events. This patient journey map highlights the value of collaborating with individuals with lived experiences and will serve as a starting point to create a research agenda, informed by military families, to improve access to care for military-connected children and families with MEDB needs.