Using Technology to Optimize Child Mental Health Care In Real World Settings

Minnesota HealthSolutions MHS in conjunction with Mayo Clinic of Rochester proposes the current project to address the NIMH DSIR priority to develop novel tools for the dissemination and implementation of evidence based treatment EBT We propose to develop a web and mobile based platform eChildPsych which integrates assessment treatment tools progress monitoring and reporting This sustainable and novel technological solution will improve the quality of mental health assessment and treatment for children through interactive tools to a support initial and ongoing assessment and documentation b facilitate selection of key diagnosis relevant EBT components c implement progress monitoring by automatically collecting real time patient level data on fidelity engagement therapeutic progress and outcome and d facilitate organizational decision making by providing aggregate fidelity and assessment data Mental disorders are a leading cause of disability and often begin in childhood At any given time approximately one in eight children suffers from a psychiatric disorder of sufficient severity to be impairing the majority of which go untreated Although effective assessment and treatment protocols exist for the majority of psychiatric conditions the vast majority of treatment offered in real world non research settings is not consistent with best practices This project aims to expand child access to evidence based mental health care for the most common psychiatric diagnoses by building a system that addresses barriers to clinician use of evidence based practices and broadens the potential base of users to other health providers e g primary care and families for self help Mental disorders are a leading cause of disability and often begin in childhood Although effective treatments exists for the a majority of psychiatric conditions including the most common presentations of anxiety depression and behavior problems the vast majority of treatment offered in community non research settings is not consistent with best practices The proposed project seeks to develop a mobile device and web based software application with content tools and monitoring functions to enable and motivate clinicians to provide high quality assessment and treatment