In Kansas, 96 of the state's 105 counties are designated as mental health professional shortage areas, leaving 60% of Kansas’ children and adolescents with unmet mental health needs, including autism, neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual and developmental disabilities. This positions primary care physicians on the front lines to answer parents’ questions about their children's specialized needs. KSKidsMAP provided those resources and foundational information to physicians at its recent conference in Wichita.

KSKidsMAP, a federally funded program offered in partnership with the KDHE since 2019, is coordinated by the KU School of Medicine-Wichita Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Pediatrics. Nearly 80 attendees were hosted at the conference, which was offered in hybrid in-person and virtual format, with in-person attendees meeting on the Heartspring campus in Wichita. Heartspring, along with the Kansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, partnered with KSKidsMAP to offer the interdisciplinary conference, bringing physicians and specialists together to better prepare a variety of healthcare professionals as they help their patients navigate referrals, diagnosis and ongoing care. Attendees included pediatricians, family medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, behavioral health clinicians, social workers, school-based health professionals, case managers and OT and PT therapists, and speech-language pathologists.

“The goal was to create more of a community of care amongst all of these specialists so that we (could) learn from each other and work better together to provide care to these kids and their families,” said Cassie Karlsson, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and KSKidsMAP neurodevelopment team lead.

To open this year’s KSKidsMAP conference, the parents of a teenaged child with Down syndrome shared the challenges they have encountered in finding specialists and navigating referrals and treatment plans for their child.

“I felt like I was in an ocean,” recalled the mom. 

“Though healthcare professionals are very familiar with and equally frustrated by the gaps in care for this patient population, this opening interview set the stage for the rest of the conference by offering a firsthand perspective on what patients and families experience as they try to access services,” explained Sarah Krogman, M.S., KSKidsMAP program and evaluation manager. “It showed how the barriers play out for real families, in their own words.”

During the sessions, specialists ranging from a genetic counselor to an audiologist to a neuropsychologist and others talked about their services to help attendees understand their roles.

“I think it was really valuable as a physician to learn and hear from some of our therapists and related health specialties that we don’t collaborate with frequently,” Karlsson said.

For example, if a referring physician doesn’t know what a speech evaluation entails, they may not adequately prepare the parents or the patient for what to expect. But after hearing from a speech therapist at the conference, they now have references to call upon.

Topics focused on understanding the role and referral process for specialty services such as audiology, feeding services, neuropsychology and ABA; the role of genetic testing and other technologies in assessment and diagnosis; and strategies for making medical care more accessible for children with specialized needs.

In addition to the speakers, many organizations attended and provided information and resources. In addition to the sponsors, they included Sunflower Health Plan, Families Together, Inc., Healthy Blue, TASN Autism and Tertiary Behavior Supports, and Sedgwick County Developmental Disability Organization.

The KSKidsMAP annual conferences began in 2024, with the first focusing on autism diagnosis. Last year’s conference covered transitioning mental and behavioral healthcare from pediatrics to adults. The focus for the 2027 conference has not yet been announced.

KSKidsMAP services

All KSKidsMAP’s training and consultations are free and available to pediatric professionals statewide, said Sarah Krogman, M.S., the program and evaluation manager.

Physicians can call or email the program’s team of child psychiatrists, child psychologists and a social worker to get recommendations for their patients or request specific resources. KSKidsMAP averages 230 consultations per year, Krogman said.

The program also provides support for the physicians themselves, offering free wellness resources aimed at preventing burnout among the clinicians who are helping fill one of Kansas' most pressing healthcare gaps.

As of summer 2026, the KSKidsMAP network has grown to just under 900 physicians and clinicians located in 88 of the 105 Kansas counties, according to Krogman.

Learn more

Go to the KSKidsMAP website to learn more.