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Wait times for youth mental health services have dropped dramatically in Ottawa thanks to a new system that makes it easier for young patients to enter treatment programs at CHEO and The Royal.
Last year, young people referred by their doctors had to wait, typically, more than six months to receive their first appointment at CHEO or The Royal.
But a new system introduced at both hospitals as part of a joint strategic plan has cut their wait times to about four weeks.
At CHEO, the new system has been accompanied by a significant drop — nine per cent — in the number of young people going to the emergency department with a mental health crisis.
That number had climbed precipitously, almost doubling, between 2009 and 2014.
CHEO’s chief of psychiatry Dr. Kathleen Pajer said she believes the drop in emergency visits is directly related to the hospital’s improved wait times. “We think we’re seeing that drop in the emergency department because we’re getting kids in sooner,” she said. “With the old system, they’d wait an average of 200 days to get into our system.”
Dr. Gail Beck, clinical director of The Royal’s youth program, said the new system is based on evidence about the value of early intervention.
“The earlier you treat an anxiety or depression, the more likely it is that a young person will need less time in treatment,” she said. “So we’re hoping that if we bring young people in earlier, it will allow us not to get bogged down — and that we’ll be able to treat people more quickly, more efficiently, and more effectively.”
The two hospitals first attacked their wait lists with a “blitz” that applied all available resources to the problem. At the same time, a new approach to outpatient treatment was introduced, the Choice and Partnership Approach.
Using the system, newly referred patients do not go through a lengthy diagnostic assessment with a psychiatrist at their initial hospital appointment.
Instead, they meet with a health professional — it could be a nurse, social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist — and identify the patient’s main problems and goals.
It means patients usually do not walk out of that first meeting with a clinical diagnosis, but they will have a plan to make things better.
Explains Pajer: “Often, we’ll get a referral from a doctor for someone with ‘anxiety.’ But the family and patient say the main problem is that she’s not sleeping. And so we try to identify the main problem; what they’ve tried in the past; what they’re willing and able to change in their social environment; and match them right away with the best resources to help with that problem.”
It’s vital, she said, that patients and their families become actively involved since “most of mental health care involves behavioural and emotional problems that you have to participate in fixing.”
The new system means that more mentally ill young people are being treated as outpatients. New figures show the number of in-patient treatment days dropped 14 per cent at CHEO during the past year.
Dr. Shaw called the new approach “much more pragmatic.” Doctors, nurses and other staff ask patients what they want from their treatment and concentrate on those goals. Some patients, she said, want to be able to return to school; others want the ability just to be more social.
“We focus in every session on helping that young person achieve the goals that are important to them” she said.
The new approach will be evaluated to test whether it is improving patient outcomes and satisfying the needs of patients and their families.
查看原文...
Last year, young people referred by their doctors had to wait, typically, more than six months to receive their first appointment at CHEO or The Royal.
But a new system introduced at both hospitals as part of a joint strategic plan has cut their wait times to about four weeks.
At CHEO, the new system has been accompanied by a significant drop — nine per cent — in the number of young people going to the emergency department with a mental health crisis.
That number had climbed precipitously, almost doubling, between 2009 and 2014.
CHEO’s chief of psychiatry Dr. Kathleen Pajer said she believes the drop in emergency visits is directly related to the hospital’s improved wait times. “We think we’re seeing that drop in the emergency department because we’re getting kids in sooner,” she said. “With the old system, they’d wait an average of 200 days to get into our system.”
Dr. Gail Beck, clinical director of The Royal’s youth program, said the new system is based on evidence about the value of early intervention.
“The earlier you treat an anxiety or depression, the more likely it is that a young person will need less time in treatment,” she said. “So we’re hoping that if we bring young people in earlier, it will allow us not to get bogged down — and that we’ll be able to treat people more quickly, more efficiently, and more effectively.”
The two hospitals first attacked their wait lists with a “blitz” that applied all available resources to the problem. At the same time, a new approach to outpatient treatment was introduced, the Choice and Partnership Approach.
Using the system, newly referred patients do not go through a lengthy diagnostic assessment with a psychiatrist at their initial hospital appointment.
Instead, they meet with a health professional — it could be a nurse, social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist — and identify the patient’s main problems and goals.
It means patients usually do not walk out of that first meeting with a clinical diagnosis, but they will have a plan to make things better.
Explains Pajer: “Often, we’ll get a referral from a doctor for someone with ‘anxiety.’ But the family and patient say the main problem is that she’s not sleeping. And so we try to identify the main problem; what they’ve tried in the past; what they’re willing and able to change in their social environment; and match them right away with the best resources to help with that problem.”
It’s vital, she said, that patients and their families become actively involved since “most of mental health care involves behavioural and emotional problems that you have to participate in fixing.”
The new system means that more mentally ill young people are being treated as outpatients. New figures show the number of in-patient treatment days dropped 14 per cent at CHEO during the past year.
Dr. Shaw called the new approach “much more pragmatic.” Doctors, nurses and other staff ask patients what they want from their treatment and concentrate on those goals. Some patients, she said, want to be able to return to school; others want the ability just to be more social.
“We focus in every session on helping that young person achieve the goals that are important to them” she said.
The new approach will be evaluated to test whether it is improving patient outcomes and satisfying the needs of patients and their families.
查看原文...
