Clinical spotlight

The Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY) offers comprehensive, coordinated care across disciplines for children with behavioral or developmental issues throughout Mississippi. CAY is a truly multidisciplinary clinic with providers from ENT, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, as well as a robust assortment of grants that are multidisciplinary. By completed appointments, 5% of CAY is ENT, 35% of CAY is Psychiatry, and 60% is Pediatrics. Over the past two years, CAY has worked tirelessly to lower their no-show rate, and they have made great progress. During the previous 2 years, the no-show rate was significantly higher (Jan 2021 – December 2022: 25.1%) than it has been this calendar year (Jan 2023 – March 2023: 14%).  

CAY prides itself on its patient FOCUS and its evidenced-based services that are provided to every patient regardless of insurance status. CAY’s FOCUS is an acronym that stands for the following: Facilitate rapport by greeting patients and families with compassion, Open the door for honest communication, Create a safe and friendly environment, Uphold patient confidentiality, and Support families during the visit and beyond. A great example of its evidenced-based services is the recent expansion of CAY’s Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) program. Currently, CAY is on track to complete twice as many ABA appointments than they did last fiscal year. ABA therapy in Mississippi is hard to locate and even harder to pay for if underinsured. By expanding ABA therapy, CAY is providing an evidenced-based therapy to dozens of families that would not be able to access this care otherwise.