Implementation of Mental Health Screening in an Adolescent Health Care Clinic

The purpose of this project was to increase the awareness of adolescent mental health issues and emphasize the importance of screening for depression and suicidal ideations, to provide clinicians mental health screening tools, and to determine the barriers and challenges involved in performing mental health screenings in practice. This project implemented mental health screenings in an adolescent, urban, walk in health clinic and evaluated the mental health screening and implementation process from the patient and the provider perspectives and determined the resources needed for follow up. This practice evaluation project included a mental health screening on consenting 18-24 year olds, a patient survey regarding the screening process, and a provider survey regarding the evaluation and referral process. The patient survey results showed that over 95% of the youth were able to complete the screening in less than five minutes and felt comfortable completing the screening while waiting for medical services. The survey results showed the providers were able to score and address the screenings for 77 (94%) of the youth in less than five minutes. Of the 82 youth screened, 17 (21%) had a positive screening for depression. Almost half (47%) of the youth had never been screened for depression. While this project had a small population, this demonstrates that mental health screenings can be completed quickly by the patient and addressed by the provider for most patients in less than five minutes.