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NEWS
FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE
HARVARD RESEARCHERS AT THE INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH AT
CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE AUTHOR STUDY ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING
ON CHILDREN
Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, Somerville,
Winthrop, MA…The Institute for Community Health, which is based
at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), announced today that a team
of clinicians released a study in the November 2006 issue of Pediatrics
about the impact of mental health screening in pediatric medical
practices.
The study, entitled "Screening for mental health in pediatric
practice: Factors related to positive screens and the contribution
of parental/personal concern," concluded that mental health
screening can be effectively implemented in the pediatric setting
and that co-locating mental health professionals in pediatric medical
practices can support screening by providing additional resources
to primary care providers.
About 20% of American children suffer from a diagnosable mental
illness during a given year, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.
"The more medical providers understand about identifying mental
health issues among children, the better chance clinicians will
have of addressing this problem," said Karen A. Hacker, MD,
MPH, Executive Director of the Institute for Community Health and
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
The study also found that screening is only one component in mental
health issue identification. The other, parental/personal concerns,
was also found to be an important, complementary identification
method to screening. "Using a standardized tool along with
questions about parental concern and current counseling can dramatically
improve identification," said Dr. Hacker.
The study was undertaken as part of increasing awareness in the
public health and mental health communities that early identification
of mental health problems may lead to decreases in long-term disability.
The US Surgeon General, the President's New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended
that pediatric providers screen for mental health issues as part
of regular medical care.
In addition to Dr. Hacker, authors of the study were Enkhbolor
Myagmarjav, MPH, Victoria Harris, MSW, MPH, and Shakira Franco Suglia,
MS, all of the Institute for Community Health; Deborah Weidner,
MD, Director of Child Psychiatry Ambulatory Services at CHA and
an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; and David
Link, MD, Chief of Pediatrics at CHA and an Associate Professor
of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
The study was based on a sample of 1,668 screened patients between
the ages of 4 years 11 months and 19 years.
 Karen
Hacker, MD, MPH, is an Internist with a subspecialty in Adolescent
Medicine and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical
School. She currently serves as Executive Director at the Institute
for Community Health, a public health research organization, while
continuing to work as a physician at Cambridge Health Alliance's
Somerville high school Teen Connection. She is also the interim
Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Cambridge. Her interest
in child mental health springs from her work with adolescents and
her belief that mental health promotion is a crucial part of primary
care. She has worked to integrate mental health into primary care
practice and to gain public health attention for child mental health.
The Institute for Community Health (ICH) is a unique collaboration
among three Massachusetts health care systems to improve the health
of Cambridge, Somerville and surrounding communities. ICH was founded
in 2000 by Cambridge Health Alliance, CareGroup Healthcare System,
and Partners HealthCare. The goals of ICH are to advance community
health research, promote community health education and training,
develop community action programs and policy, and forge linkages
among nationally recognized not-for-profit health care systems with
shared community health objectives.
Please visit: http://www.icommunityhealth.org/ichhome.shtml
Pediatrics is an official peer-reviewed journal of
the American Academy of Pediatrics. Pediatrics publishes original
research, clinical observations, and special feature articles in
the field of pediatrics, as broadly defined. Contributions pertinent
to pediatrics are also included from related fields such as nutrition,
surgery, dentistry, public health, child health services, human
genetics, basic sciences, psychology, psychiatry, education, sociology,
and nursing.
CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE
Cambridge Health Alliance, a regional healthcare system with three
hospitals and more than twenty primary care practices throughout
Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston's metro-North communities, is
a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. It also includes
the Cambridge Public Health Department, Physician's Organization
(CHAPO), and Network Health, a managed Medicaid plan.
Please visit www.cha.harvard.edu
See
also ARCHIVES
of Press Releases
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Media
Contacts
Alison
Harris
Director Media Relations
Phone: 617-499-8323
Cell: 781-424-3293
Pager: 617-546-8696
aharris@challiance.org
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