Predictors of referrals and depression outcomes among obstetrics and gynecology patients with positive depression screens.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the care provided following positive depression screens in obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) patients. METHOD: This study evaluated documented care plans and outcomes for 445 Ob/Gyn patients with positive depression screens between January 2018 and December 2020. Logistic regression models were estimated to identify predictors of changes in documented care plans and to test if a documented plan was associated with a reduction in depression severity in 6 months. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 445 patients who were on average 35.5 (SD = 12.8) years; 206 (46.3%) were White and 178 (40.0%) were Black. A total of 64 (14.4%) had a depression care plan documenting antidepressant initiation or change and/or psychotherapy referral. Relative to those aged 18-29, patients 40 or older had approximately 60% lower odds of a documented care plan change (OR = 0.394; p < .05). Relative to those seen by nurses, patients seen by physicians had approximately 70% lower odds of having treatment change (OR = 0.282; p < .05). Patients with a depression care plan documented had approximately 2.7 times higher odds of achieving 50% or more reduction in their Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression severity score than those without a documented plan (OR = 2.685; p = .009). DISCUSSION: While most patients did not experience an initiation or change in their depression care plan on the same day as their positive screen, those patients with a plan documented showed significantly more improvement than those who did not. Standardized recommendations may improve depression outcomes among patients with positive depression screens. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Team-based home blood pressure monitoring for blood pressure equity a protocol for a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Home Blood Pressure Monitoring (HBPM) that includes a team with a clinical pharmacist is an evidence-based intervention that improves blood pressure (BP). Yet, strategies for promoting its adoption in primary care are lacking. We developed potentially feasible and sustainable implementation strategies to improve hypertension control and BP equity. METHODS: We assessed barriers and facilitators to HBPM and iteratively adapted implementation strategies through key informative interviews and guidance from a multistakeholder stakeholder team involving investigators, clinicians, and practice administration. RESULTS: Strategies include: 1) pro-active outreach to patients; 2) provision of BP devices; 3) deployment of automated bidirectional texting to support patients through education messages for patients to transmit their readings to the clinical team; 3) a hypertension visit note template; 4) monthly audit and feedback reports on progress to the team; and 5) training to the patients and teams. We will use a stepped wedge randomized trial to assess RE-AIM outcomes. These are defined as follows Reach: the proportion of eligible patients who agree to participate in the BP texting; Effectiveness: the proportion of eligible patients with their last BP reading <140/90 (six months); Adoption: the proportion of patients invited to the BP texting; Implementation: patients who text their BP reading ≥10 of days per month; and Maintenance: sustained BP control post-intervention (twelve months). We will also examine RE-AIM metrics stratified by race and ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings will inform the impact of strategies for the adoption of team-based HPBM and the impact of the intervention on hypertension control and equity. REGISTRATION DETAILS: www. CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT05488795.

Addressing Sexual Harassment and Gender Bias: Mandatory Modules Are Not Enough.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite decades of new policy guidelines and mandatory training modules, sexual harassment (SH) and gender bias (GB) continue in academic medicine. The hierarchical structure of medical training makes it challenging to act when one experiences or witnesses SH or GB. Most trainings designed to address SH and GB are driven by external mandates and do not utilize current educational techniques. Our goal was to design training that is in-person, active, and directed toward skills development. METHODS: Our academic family medicine (FM) department began by surveying our faculty and residents about their lived experiences of SH and GB. We used these data, incorporating principles of adult learning, to deliver voluntary, experiential, interactive workshops throughout 2019. The workshops took place during faculty development meetings and an annual retreat. We used interactive techniques that included case-based and Theater of the Oppressed formats. OUTCOMES: Eighty percent of faculty and residents participated in at least one of our voluntary training sessions. In April of 2020, we administered a retrospective, pre/postsurvey on confidence in recognizing, responding to, and reporting SH and GB. We found significant improvements in all domains surveyed; many participants reported using the skills in the 6 months prior to completing the surveys. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that voluntary, interactive training sessions using the recommendations of the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine Report on the Sexual Harassment of Women improve participants' reported confidence in recognizing, responding to, and reporting SH and GB in one academic FM department. This training intervention is practical and can be disseminated and implemented in many settings.

Sexual Harassment and Gender Bias in Family Medicine: Divergent Experiences of Men and Women.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Awareness of sexual harassment (SH), gender bias (GB), and gender discrimination (GD) has spread throughout popular culture and has been highlighted at universities across the United States. More nuanced data is needed to inform policies that address these issues. However, there are currently limited qualitative studies examining the nature of SH, GB, and GD in academic medicine, particularly family medicine. METHODS: In 2018, we conducted a series of gender-specific focus groups with faculty and residents in a department of family medicine (DFM) to understand their experiences with and responses to SH, GB, and GD. The focus groups were transcribed verbatim. We used immersion-crystallization and an adapted SH Experiences model to review the transcripts and identify patterns or themes during the immersion process. RESULTS: Participants identified the potential for patients, colleagues, faculty, and themselves as perpetrators and victims of SH, GB, and GD. Results suggested that GB was often implicit. SH was experienced verbally and physically. Women participants, especially, reported that both SH and GB occurred frequently and had lasting psychological effects. Gender, age, and position (faculty vs trainee) moderated SH and GB experiences. The effects seemed to be mediated by moral distress. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the importance of recognizing differences in experiences across gender, age, and position of SH, GB, and GD in academic family medicine. Our findings can be leveraged to develop antiharassment policies and set cultural expectations.

Primary Care Behavioral Health Integration and Care Utilization: Implications for Patient Outcome and Healthcare Resource Use.

BACKGROUND: Behavioral health (BH) integration in primary care (PC) can potentially improve outcomes and reduce cost of care. While different models of integration exist, evidence from real-world examples is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness and value of integration. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of six PC practice sites located in Western New York that implemented a primary care behavioral health (PCBH) integration model. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of PCBH on all-cause healthcare utilization rates. DESIGN: A retrospective observational study based on historical multi-payer health insurance claims data. Claims data were aggregated on a per-member-per-month basis to compare utilization rates among the patients in the PC practice sites that had implemented PCBH to those in the sites that had not yet done so. PARTICIPANTS: The sample included 6768 unique adult health plan members between October 2015 and June 2017 with at least one BH diagnosis code who were attributed to one of the six newly integrated PC practice sites. INTERVENTIONS: Under the PCBH integration model, BH specialists were embedded in PC practice sites to treat a wide range of BH conditions. MAIN MEASURES: Rates of all-cause ED visits and hospital admissions, along with rates of PC provider and BH provider visits. KEY RESULTS: PCBH implementation was associated with reductions in the rates of outpatient ED visits (14.2%; p < 0.001) and PC provider visits (12.0%; p < 0.001), as well as with an increased rate of BH provider visits (7.5%; p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: PCBH integration appears to alter the treatment patterns among patients with BH conditions by shifting patient visits away from ED and PC providers toward BH providers who specialize in treatment of such patients.

Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care for Adults with Complex Childhood Onset Medical and Developmental Diagnoses.

Increased life expectancy for individuals with complex pediatric-onset conditions means most of this population survive into adulthood. While this is great news for individuals and their families, the traditional adult medical model must adapt to extend the care provided by specialty pediatric practices to primary care. In this paper, we introduce a model of integrated behavioral health (IBH) in a primary care practice for adults with childhood onset medical and developmental conditions. Our discussion includes the role of IBH providers (i.e., psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers) as members of the integrated team, patient engagement and response to treatment, and innovative ways we strive to meet patient needs. Our review of electronic health records of patients seen at the UR Medicine Complex Care Center suggest that IBH is feasible and highly utilized, with 216 patients (40%) having had contact with an IBH provider on the team at least once. We discuss the challenges of meeting the longer-term needs of this complex patient population and our directions for future growth including creating peer and caregiver support networks, expanding services offered, and continued collaboration with community partners.

"Am I Making More of It Than I Should?": Reporting and Responding to Sexual Harassment.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Health professionals may face sexual harassment from patients, faculty, and colleagues. Medicine's hierarchy deters response to sexual harassment. Current evidence consists largely of quantitative data regarding the frequency and types of sexual harassment. More information is needed about the nature of the experience and how or why professionals choose to report or respond. METHODS: We developed and administered a semistructured interview guide to elicit family medicine faculty and residents' experiences with sexual harassment and gender bias. Facilitators led a series of focus groups divided by faculty (N=28) and residents (N=24). We ensured voluntary consent and groups were audiotaped, transcribed and deidentified. We coded the transcripts using immersion-crystallization theory to identify emergent themes. RESULTS: Sexual harassment from patients and colleagues was described as witnessed or personally experienced by faculty and resident participants in 100% of the focus groups. Respondents identified the presence of mentors, clear reporting process and follow-up, history of good organizational response to reporting, and education and training as facilitators to reporting sexual harassment. Barriers to reporting included fear of retaliation, lack of trust of the system to respond, lack of clarity about "what counts," and confusion with the reporting process. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to capitalize on facilitators to reporting sexual harassment, starting with acknowledging the frequency of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Addressing barriers to responding through education and training for our learners and faculty is critical. Clarifying the reporting process, having clear expectations for behavior, and a continuum of responses may help increase the frequency of reporting.

Building the plane in the air but also before and after it takes flight: considerations for training and workforce preparedness in integrated behavioural health.

Collaborative approaches to healthcare that integrate behavioural and biomedical interventions are more likely to enhance patient outcomes as well as provider satisfaction with care delivery than siloed approaches to care. The recognition for specific and targeted training for these models is growing among all health professions, although many in the field have not received systematized, interprofessional, and competency-based training that adequately prepared them for the work of integration. This article reviews some of the fundamental principles of biopsychosocially-oriented, team-based approaches to care that integrate behavioural and biomedical perspectives and delineates the need for targeted training efforts. It describes which specific elements must be addressed within it in order to promote effective integration, and highlights the array of options for training currently in existence. This review provides an overview of current models of training offered in the US, and concludes with a discussion of the challenges and barriers that may render training either ineffective or difficult to achieve.

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Integrating care when the end is near: ethical dilemmas in end-of-life care.

An integrated and collaborative team provides the best clinical care of patients and families during end-of-life moments. Behavioral Health Clinicians (BHCs) bring a skill set for facilitating team interactions, attending to group process, as well as making space for the patient or family voice in the care, often with more time available for these roles. Through a case scenario, this article explores the relevant existing codes of ethics and professional conduct for professionals practicing in integrated care settings as they pertain to end-of-life transitions and care. Most notably, potential ethical issues pertaining to patient autonomy, scope of practice, confidentiality, multiple relationships, and record keeping all come to play during end-of-life care when practicing in an integrated primary care setting. Gaps in the existing codes are discussed and recommendations for providing ethically informed patient- and family-centered end-of-life care are suggested.

Developing an outcome-based assessment for family therapy training: the Rochester Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (ROSCE).

This paper addresses a growing need for cost-effective, outcome-based assessment in family therapy training. We describe the ROSCE, a structured, evidence-informed, learner-centered approach to the assessment of clinical skills developed at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The ROSCE emphasizes direct observation of trainees demonstrating clinical competencies. The format integrates both formative and summative assessment methods. It can readily be adapted to a wide variety of educational and training settings.

The role of parent-adolescent attachment in the glycemic control of adolescents with Type 1 diabetes: a pilot study.

This pilot study explored the associations between parent and adolescent reports of adolescent attachment and glycemic control in adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. We hypothesized that more secure attachment would correlate with more optimal diabetes control. Thirty-one families completed written self-report questionnaires about adolescent attachment, demographic data, and diabetes control. Adolescents and parents reported on their perceptions of adolescents' attachment to mothers and fathers. Mean HbA1c for the sample was 7.6% (SD = 1.14). Mothers' perceptions of adolescents' attachment were significantly correlated with adolescents' hemoglobin A1c (r = -.42, p = .022), indicating that maternal perceptions of more secure attachment was associated with better glycemic control. Neither fathers' perceptions nor adolescents' reports of attachment was significantly correlated with glycemic control. Attachment appears to be associated with glycemic control in this population though the mechanisms are unclear. Mothers' perceptions of attachment had the strongest associations with control, not adolescent reports. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms through which parent reports of adolescent attachment are associated with glycemic control.

Burnout among mental health professionals: special considerations for the marriage and family therapist.

Burnout is a syndrome consisting of physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from negative self-concept, negative job attitudes, and loss of concern for clients. This research study explores potential predictors and prevalence of burnout among marriage and family therapists (MFTs). It evaluates the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to establish its applicability to MFTs. Our sample of 116 Clinical Members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy responded to a mailed questionnaire including demographic information and the MBI. Overall, our sample reported low-to-moderate ranges of burnout. Differences were noted in degrees of burnout across job settings. Predictors of clinician burnout include hours worked per week and job setting. Factor analysis indicates that the MBI is an appropriate assessment tool for measuring burnout among MFTs. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.