Project description:High school students in the United States are being educated during an unprecedented time of social unrest, public health concerns, and gun violence. High school student athletes can be further challenged by sports-related stressors that may lead to anxiety, burnout, depression, disordered eating, sleep difficulty, performance-based identity concerns, and substance use. High school football players, in particular, are at higher risk of concussion, musculoskeletal injury, and may feel excess pressure to compete from coaches, parents, and peers. One way to address these stressors among high school student athletes is to increase athletic department staff members' awareness of the symptoms of mental health disorders. Increased awareness helps staff members recognize when an athlete is in crisis, as well as respond with an established mental health emergency action plan as needed. In this review article, the authors provide a blueprint by which high school personnel can more readily identify and respond to mental health emergencies among student athletes.
Project description:Screening for substance abuse and mental health in primary care can improve detection. One way to advance screening is for health plans to require it.We developed national estimates of the prevalence and type of mental and substance-use condition screening health plans require of primary care practitioners.In 1999 (N = 434, response rate = 92%) and 2003 (N = 368, response rate = 83%), we conducted a nationally representative health plan survey regarding alcohol, drug, and mental health services, including screening requirements.Health plans reported on screening requirements of their top three private insurance products. Products were categorized by type (HMO, POS, or PPO), behavioral health contracting arrangements, tax status, market area population, and region.We asked whether primary care practitioners are required to use a general health screening questionnaire (including mental health, alcohol, or drugs items) and/or a screening questionnaire focused on mental health, alcohol, or drug problems.By 2003, 34% of products had any behavioral health screening requirements. Although there was no increase from 1999 to 2003 in requirements for any kind of behavioral health screening, requirements for using a standard screening instrument declined for mental health but increased for alcohol and drug screening. PPOs showed the largest increase in prevalence of behavioral health screening requirements. Products contracting with managed behavioral health organizations were more likely to require screening.Most products do not require behavioral health screening in primary care. More screening could help to improve identification of behavioral health conditions, a first step towards effective treatment.
Project description:The Learning Health Community is an emergent global multistakeholder grassroots incipient movement bonded together by a set of consensus Core Values Underlying a National-Scale Person-Centered Continuous Learning Health System developed at the 2012 Learning Health System (LHS) Summit. The Learning Health Community's Second LHS Summit was convened on December 8 to 9, 2016 building upon LHS efforts taking shape in order to achieve consensus on actions that, if taken, will advance LHSs and the LHS vision from what remain appealing concepts to a working reality for improving the health of individuals and populations globally. An iterative half-year collaborative revision process following the Second LHS Summit led to the development of the Learning Health Systems Consensus Action Plan.
Project description:BackgroundInadequate sleep health is a public health problem among Dutch adolescents with detrimental effects on their physical and mental well-being. System approaches are increasingly being used to understand and address public health problems. Therefore, a recent study created a comprehensive Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) that integrated all relevant determinants of adolescent sleep health, underlying system dynamics and potential leverage points. Building on that, the current study aims to design a 'whole systems action plan' to promote sleep health of Dutch adolescents, combining systems science with a participatory approach.MethodsFive (multi)stakeholder sessions with adolescents (N = 40, 12-15 years), parents (N = 14) and professionals (N = 13) were organized to co-create actions addressing preselected leverage points derived from the previously mapped CLD. Subsequently, three sessions with multidisciplinary representatives of regional and national oriented (health) organizations (N = 27) were held using the World Café Methodology to identify intervention actions as well as potential implementers. The Action Scales Model (ASM), a tool to understand and change the system at different levels (i.e., event, structure, goal, belief) of the system, was used to create a coherent whole systems action plan.ResultsThe created whole systems action plan consisted of 66 (sets of) actions across different ASM levels (i.e., event, structure, goal, belief) targeting 42 leverage points across five subsystems: school environment N = 24; mental wellbeing N = 17; digital environment N = 9; family & home environment N = 9; personal system N = 7. Per action potential implementers were identified, which included amongst others schools and public health services. The previously mapped CLD visualizing system dynamics shaping adolescent sleep health were supplemented with how dynamics can be changed via the actions identified.ConclusionsThe resulting whole systems action plan provides a subsequent step in applying a whole systems approach to understand and promote adolescent sleep health. Combining a systems approach, using the ASM, and a co-creation approach was found to be mutually reinforcing and helpful in developing a comprehensive action plan. This action plan can guide strategic planning and implementation of actions that promote systemic change. With this, it is important to ensure coherence between actions being developed and implemented to increase the potential for lasting systems change.
Project description:Polio or poliomyelitis is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by poliovirus (PV). As a consequence of global polio vaccination efforts, wild PV serotypes 2 and 3 have been eradicated around the world, and wild PV serotype 1-transmitted cases have been largely eliminated except for limited regions. However, vaccine-derived PV, pathogenically reverted live PV vaccine strains, has become a serious issue. For the global eradication of polio, the World Health Organization is conducting the third edition of the Global Action Plan, which is requesting stringent control of potentially PV-infected materials. To facilitate the mission, we generated a PV-nonsusceptible Vero cell subline, which may serve as an ideal replacement of standard Vero cells to isolate emerging/re-emerging viruses without the risk of generating PV-infected materials.
Project description:Background: Tailoring implementation strategies to local contexts is a promising approach to supporting implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices in health settings. While there is increasing research on tailored implementation of mental health interventions, implementation research on suicide prevention interventions is limited. This study aimed to evaluate implementation and subsequently develop a tailored action plan to support sustainment of an evidence-based suicide prevention intervention; Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) in an Australian public mental health service. Methods: Approximately 150 mental health staff working within a regional and remote Local Health District in Australia were trained in CAMS. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with frontline staff and clinical leaders were conducted to examine barriers and facilitators to using CAMS. Data were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach and mapped to the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment (EPIS) framework and followed by stakeholder engagement to design a tailored implementation action plan based on a 'tailored blueprint' methodology. Results: A total of 22 barriers to implementing CAMS were identified. Based on the perceived impact on implementation fidelity and the feasibility of addressing identified barriers, six barriers were prioritised for addressing through an implementation action plan. These barriers were mapped to evidence-based implementation strategies and, in collaboration with local health district staff, goals and actionable steps for each strategy were generated. This information was combined into a tailored implementation plan to support the sustainable use of CAMS as part of routine care within this mental health service. Conclusions: This study provides an example of a collaborative approach to tailoring strategies for implementation on a large scale. Novel insights were obtained into the challenges of evaluating the implementation process and barriers to implementing an evidence-based suicide prevention treatment approach within a geographically large and varied mental health service in Australia. Plain language abstract: This study outlines the process of using a collaborative stakeholder engagement approach to develop tailored implementation plans. Using the Exploration Preparation Implementation Sustainment Framework, findings identify the barriers to and strategies for implementing a clinical suicide prevention intervention in an Australian community mental health setting. This is the first known study to use an implementation science framework to investigate the implementation of the clinical suicide prevention intervention (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality) within a community mental health setting. This work highlights the challenges of conducting implementation research in a dynamic public health service.
Project description:Recurrent heat waves, already a concern in rapidly growing and urbanizing South Asia, will very likely worsen in a warming world. Coordinated adaptation efforts can reduce heat's adverse health impacts, however. To address this concern in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), a coalition has been formed to develop an evidence-based heat preparedness plan and early warning system. This paper describes the group and initial steps in the plan's development and implementation. Evidence accumulation included extensive literature review, analysis of local temperature and mortality data, surveys with heat-vulnerable populations, focus groups with health care professionals, and expert consultation. The findings and recommendations were encapsulated in policy briefs for key government agencies, health care professionals, outdoor workers, and slum communities, and synthesized in the heat preparedness plan. A 7-day probabilistic weather forecast was also developed and is used to trigger the plan in advance of dangerous heat waves. The pilot plan was implemented in 2013, and public outreach was done through training workshops, hoardings/billboards, pamphlets, and print advertisements. Evaluation activities and continuous improvement efforts are ongoing, along with plans to explore the program's scalability to other Indian cities, as Ahmedabad is the first South Asian city to address heat-health threats comprehensively.
Project description:ImportanceTen years after the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, patients continue to report insurance-related barriers to specialty mental health care.ObjectivesTo assess privately insured patients' perceptions of the adequacy of their health plan's provider network (provider network includes physicians, clinicians, other health care professionals, and their institutions that constitute the network), whether practitioners frequently leave plans, and whether practitioner plan participation affected patients' plan choice.Design, setting, and participantsA nationally representative, population-based internet survey study of English-speaking US adults participating in KnowledgePanel, an online research panel, was conducted from August to September 2018. Data analysis was performed from November 12, 2020, to May 12, 2021. From a sample of 29 854 panelists aged 18 to 64 years, 19 602 initiated the screener (completion rate of 66%), and 728 met study criteria: adults with private insurance receiving both specialty mental health and medical care in the past year.ExposureHealth plan's provider network.Main outcomes and measuresSelf-report of plan inadequacy, whether a practitioner left the plan and the participant's responses (stopped treatment, switched practitioner, or continued treatment), and whether participation of a specific practitioner was considered when a health plan was chosen. Experiences with both mental health and medical provider networks were assessed. Analyses were weighted to match the sample to the US population. Weights provided by KnowledgePanel were also adjusted for panel recruitment, attrition, oversampling, and survey nonresponse.ResultsOf a total of 728 study participants, 204 (39%) were aged 18 to 34 years, 504 (61%) were women, 82 (17%) were Hispanic, and 551 (66%) were non-Hispanic White individuals. Serious psychological distress was reported by 262 participants (36%), and 214 participants (29%) also received mental health treatment from a primary care practitioner. Participants rated their mental health provider network as inadequate more frequently than their medical provider network (163 [21%] vs 70 [10%]; odds ratio [OR], 2.69; 95% CI, 1.64-4.40; P < .001). However, among the 193 participants also receiving mental health treatment from a primary care practitioner, there was no significant difference in the ratings of mental health and medical provider networks (44 [14%] vs 18 [9%]; OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.65-3.67; P = .32). Sixty participants (8%) reported that a mental health practitioner had left their plan's insurance network in the past 3 years. Of the 523 participants with a choice of plan, 98 (20%) considered whether a specific mental health practitioner was in network before choosing a plan.Conclusions and relevanceThis study's findings suggest that more participants perceived their mental health networks to be inadequate compared with their medical networks. Increasing the availability of mental health treatment in primary care practices may aid plans in constructing adequate mental health provider networks and improve patient access to mental health care.