Improving Narrative Feedback for Resident-Led Academic Rounds: The Effects of Assessment Form Design Changes.

Background: Learners benefit more from narrative feedback than numerical scores on formative assessments, yet they often report that feedback is lacking in quality and quantity. Changes to the formatting of assessment forms is a practical intervention with limited literature regarding its impact on feedback. Objective: This study explores the effect of a formatting change (ie, relocating the comment section from the bottom of a form to the top) on residents' oral presentation assessment forms and if this affects the quality of narrative feedback. Methods: We used a feedback scoring system based on the theory of deliberate practice to evaluate the quality of written feedback provided to psychiatry residents on assessment forms from January to December 2017 before and after a form design change. Word count and presence of narrative comments were also assessed. Results: Ninety-three assessment forms with the comment section at bottom and 133 forms with the comment section at the top were evaluated. When the comment section was placed at the top of the evaluation form, there were significantly more comment sections with any number of words than left blank (X 2(1)=6.54, P=.011) as well as a significant increase in the specificity related to the task component, or what was done well (X 2(3)=20.12, P≤.0001). Conclusions: More prominent placement of the feedback section on assessment forms increased the number of sections filled as well as the specificity related to the task component.

Canadian Rural/Remote Primary Care Physicians Perspectives on Child/Adolescent Mental Health Care Service Delivery.

INTRODUCTION: Primary Care Physicians (PCP) play a key role in the recognition and management of child/adolescent mental health struggles. In rural and under-serviced areas of Canada, there is a gap between child/adolescent mental health needs and service provision. METHODS: From a Canadian national needs assessment survey, PCPs' narrative comments were examined using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Using the phenomenological method, individual comments were drawn upon to illustrate the themes that emerged. These themes were further analyzed using chi-square to identify significant differences in the frequency in which they were reported. RESULTS: Out of 909 PCPs completing the survey, 39.38% (n = 358) wrote comments. Major themes that emerged were: 1) psychiatrist access, including issues such as long waiting lists, no child/adolescent psychiatrists available, no direct access to child/adolescent psychiatrists; 2) poor communication/continuity, need for more systemized/transparent referral processes, and need to rely on adult psychiatrists; and, 3) referral of patients to other mental health professionals such as paediatricians, psychologists, and social workers. CONCLUSIONS: Concerns that emerged across sites primarily revolved around lack of access to care and systems issues that interfere with effective service delivery. These concerns suggest potential opportunities for future improvement of service delivery. IMPLICATIONS: Although the survey only had one comment box located at the end, PCPs wrote their comments throughout the survey. Further research focusing on PCPs' expressed written concerns may give further insight into child/adolescent mental health care service delivery systems. A comparative study targeting urban versus rural regions in Canada may provide further valuable insights.

INTRODUCTION: Les médecins de soins de première ligne (MSPL) jouent un rôle essentiel dans la reconnaissance et la prise en charge des problèmes de santé mentale des enfants/adolescents. Dans les régions rurales et sous-desservies du Canada, il y a un écart entre les besoins de santé mentale des enfants/adolescents et la prestation de services. MÉTHODES: Tirés d'un sondage canadien national évaluant les besoins, les commentaires narratifs des MSPL ont été examinés à l'aide d'approches quantitatives et qualitatives. Au moyen de la méthode phénoménologique, les commentaires individuels ont servi à illustrer les thèmes dégagés. Ces thèmes ont ensuite été analysés avec le chi-carré afin d'identifier les différences significatives de la fréquence à laquelle ils étaient mentionnés. RÉSULTATS: Sur les 909 MSPL qui ont répondu au sondage, 39,38% (n = 358) ont écrit des commentaires. Les thèmes majeurs qui se sont dégagés étaient: 1) l'accès aux psychiatres, notamment des questions comme les longues listes d'attente, pas de pédopsychiatres disponibles, pas d'accès direct aux pédopsychiatres; 2) mauvaise communication/continuité, besoin de processus plus nombreux d'aiguillage systémique/transparent, et besoin de consulter des psychiatres pour adultes; 3) adresser les patients à d'autres professionnels de la santé comme les pédiatres, les psychologues et les travailleurs sociaux. CONCLUSIONS: Les préoccupations soulevées dans les divers centres s'articulaient autour de l'accès aux soins et des problèmes des systèmes qui empiètent sur la prestation efficace de services. Ces préoccupations suggèrent des possibilités pour l'amélioration future de la prestation de services. Implications: Bien que le sondage n'ait offert qu'un espace pour les commentaires à la fin, les MSPL ont écrit leurs commentaires sur tout le sondage. D'autres recherches portant sur les commentaires écrits des MSPL peuvent offrir d'autres idées sur les systèmes de prestation de services de santé mentale aux enfants/adolescents Une étude comparative ciblant les régions urbaines par rapport aux régions rurales du Canada peut fournir un apport valable.

Help seeking and perceived need for mental health care among individuals in Canada with suicidal behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined and compared help seeking, perceived need, satisfaction with health professionals, and barriers to care in three groups: individuals with a mental disorder without suicidal behaviors, those with suicidal ideation with or without a mental disorder, and those with a suicide attempt with or without a mental disorder in the past year. METHODS: Data came from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2. The sample consisted of 36,984 persons aged 15 years and older (response rate=77%). A total of 4,872 had a mental disorder without suicidal behaviors, 1,234 had suicidal ideation, and 230 had attempted suicide. Multiple logistic regressions were used to examine differences between the three groups after adjusting for sociodemographic factors and the number of mental disorders. RESULTS: Individuals with suicidal ideation and those with suicide attempts were significantly more likely than those with a mental disorder but no suicidal behaviors to seek help and to perceive a need for care in the past year. However, 48% of individuals reporting suicidal ideation and 24% of individuals reporting a suicide attempt did not seek help and did not perceive a need for help in the past year. Significant differences existed between individuals in the three groups in terms of satisfaction with the care they received and barriers to receiving care in the past year. CONCLUSIONS: Although suicidal ideation and suicide attempts represent a significant source of evaluated need associated with help seeking and perceived need over and above the presence and severity of mental disorders, a significant proportion of individuals with suicidal behaviors did not receive care and did not perceive a need for care. Future research should be directed toward finding better ways to identify these individuals and address barriers to their care and other factors that may interfere with their receiving help.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy; adaptations required to treat adolescents.

Conducting psychotherapy with adolescents is qualitatively different from psychotherapy with adults. Cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy are two types of psychotherapy commonly used in the treatment of adolescents. A brief review of the current state of research on these treatments is provided with a focus on anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. This article also describes adaptations of these treatments that will help the general psychiatrist to effectively conduct these treatments with adolescents in their practice.

The associations between peer and parental relationships and suicidal behaviours in early adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between suicidal behaviours, including suicidal ideation and attempts, and poor peer and parental relationships in a nationally representative sample of Canadian adolescents aged 12 to 13 years. METHODS: We used Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth as the dataset. This cross-sectional sample included 1049 girls and 1041 boys aged 12 to 13 years. We obtained answers to self-report questionnaires that included measures of peer relationships, parental nurturance, and parental rejection, as well as information regarding suicidal ideation and attempts. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used for the analysis. We included depression in the multiple logistic regression analysis. Analyses were run separately for boys and girls. RESULTS: The unadjusted logistic regression models found that, among early adolescent boys and girls, depression, poor peer relationships, decreased parental nurturance, and increased parental rejection were all significantly associated with suicidal ideation and attempts. However, after adjusting for all other variables in the multiple logistic regression models, poor peer relationships were no longer significantly associated with suicidal ideation among early adolescent boys and were only weakly associated among early adolescent girls. CONCLUSIONS: Poor parental relationships and depression were more powerfully associated with suicidal ideation and attempts than were peer relationships in a nationally representative sample of boys and girls aged 12 to 13 years, and these factors may be important early intervention targets.