We’ll write everything from scratch Question  Mental Health Care Identify your clinical practicum setting (primary care office, urgent care, etc.) and a population that you typically see (i.e., adolescents, women, older adults). Family practice and older adults Discuss mental health screening tools used at your clinical site . If no screening tools are currently used, which ones would you recommend? PHQ9 is used Describe the quality of the mental health care you have observed. Discuss disparities or biases, if any, in the care provided to different members of the population. Good quality they assess mayority mainly on wellness/ annual visits Screening opportunities are often missed in vulnerable populations and those with limited access to care. Describe at least TWO changes you recommend in your practice setting and community to increase the frequency of mental health screenings within vulnerable populations. screen every patient everytime screen on triage and again with the d

Mental Health Care

Initiation of mental health care starts in a primary care setting following a psychiatric screening. My clinical practicum setting is a family practice, where I majorly practice in a primary care office. In my practicum settings, although open to everyone, I typically see older adults who visit the clinic for various reasons, including applications for drug refills, mental health consultations, and screening.

My clinic mainly uses the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to perform major screenings. PHQ-9 has undergone a lot of testing and has been validated validated to help screen patients in primary care settings for depression (Costantini et al., 2021). PHQ-9 has significant psychometric reliability, which helps assess and determine the severity of a client’s depressive symptoms and guide mental health care planning. PHQ-9 also improves the quality of interactions between clients and physicians during assessments (Ford et al., 2020).

So far, based on observations and experiences, the mental health care provided at the clinic is of good quality. However, there are some notable disparities in the care provided to the local community. For instance, most patients only come for screening only during their annual visits. The wellness assessments are also biased based on the presumption that older clients have mental issues.

Moreover, a few changes within the practice settings and the community can improve screening for mental health among vulnerable populations. Some recommended changes in my practice setting include screening every patient every time they visit the clinic, whether for sick/scute visits, med refills, or any other visits, and screening on triage and again with the doctor/NP. A higher frequency of screening can help detect mental health issues as they emerge and implement the right early interventions to prevent complications.

References

Costantini, L., Pasquarella, C., Odone, A., Colucci, M. E., Costanza, A., Serafini, G., Aguglia, A., Belvederi Murri, M., Brakoulias, V., Amore, M., Ghaemi, S. N., & Amerio, A. (2021). Screening for depression in primary care with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9): A systematic review. In Journal of Affective Disorders (Vol. 279). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.131

Ford, J., Thomas, F., Byng, R., & McCabe, R. (2020). Use of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in practice: Interactions between patients and physicians. Qualitative Health Research, 30(13). https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732320924625