Barriers to Care		Many general pediatricians are not comfortable providing care for depressed adolescents. This can be due to many different reasons: lack of professional training lack of confidence in broaching the subject with adolescents or preadolescents inadequate skill in using tools to screen for various psychiatric problems, such as depression, anxiety, oppositional or conduct disorder time and office scheduling demands poor reimbursement, especially for follow-up visits perceived increased medico-legal risks feeling of inadequate consultative resources and community support Even those patients who are seen by a mental health professional may not have the opportunity to get adequate treatment. While half of all teens committing suicide have had contact with either a psychiatrist, psychologist or psychiatric social worker and 35-45% of them had a previous suicide attempt, only 10% had received a trial of SSRIs. Return to top of page