Wednesday, June 08, 2005
A Public Health Strategy to Improve the Mental Health of Canadian Children Review paper in the
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - "Mental health problems are the leading health problems that Canadian children currently face after infancy. At any given time, 14% of children aged 4 to 17 years (over 800 000 in Canada) experience mental disorders that cause significant distress and impairment at home, at school, and in the community. Fewer than 25% of these children receive specialized treatment services. Without effective prevention or treatment, childhood problems often lead to distress and impairment throughout adulthood, with significant costs for society. Children’s mental health has not received the public policy attention that is warranted by recent epidemiologic data. To address the neglect of children’s mental health, a new national strategy is urgently needed. Here, we review the research evidence and suggest the following 4 public policy goals: promote healthy development for all children, prevent mental disorders to reduce the number of children affected, treat mental disorders more effectively to reduce distress and impairment, and monitor outcomes to ensure the effective and efficient use of public resources. Taken together, these goals constitute a public health strategy to improve the mental health of Canadian children..." See also
Challenges Facing Child Psychiatry in Quebec at the Dawn of the 21st Century in the same issue, in PDF format.
Identifying Patient Coping Preferences for Better Hospital Treatment A
Medscape "Expert Interview" with Dr. David J. Hellerstein - "Over the past few decades, it has been increasingly recognized that the experience of being hospitalized is much more frightening and traumatic for patients when they have so little control over their care. Basically, we looked at how we could decrease the use of mechanical restraints and seclusion. It occurred to us that one way to do this would be to ask patients what kind of response from hospital personnel they preferred at those times when they lost control. It's almost a consumer assessment by our patients. When you stay at a hotel, for example, you always get a questionnaire that asks how you liked the service and what kind of things you'd like to see changed. We actually do a patient satisfaction questionnaire, but the CAQ focuses on a specific aspect of care, which is hospital response to loss of behavioral control. We want to know which responses might help, which responses upset them, and what helps them maintain control. So the goal is to engage patients in more of a partnership where their preferences would have an impact on the kinds of interventions that would be offered to them." [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
Suicide survivors often don't get follow-up mental health care Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story - "A study published last week in the Journal
of the American Medical Association found that about 1 in 5 people who attempted suicide over a decade did not receive any kind of medical treatment at all. 'It's just amazing to think that they can walk out of an emergency room and not be forced to see a therapist,' said Ronald Kessler, lead author of the study and professor in the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. The solution to the puzzle seems obvious: Care for those who have sent a clear cry for help. And the findings of two psychologists who have worked with those who have survived suicide attempts bear out that conclusion." The
abstract of the study published in
JAMA is available at no charge.
