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Mental healthcare for children with chronic conditions: a qualitative study
Renee Jones1, Harriet Hiscock2,3, Danielle Wurzel4,5
1Health Services, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia renee.jones@mcri.edu.au.
Insights
Parents want pediatric outpatient clinics to proactively address children
Area of Science:
- Pediatric mental health
- Healthcare access for chronic conditions
- Family-centered care
Background:
- Children with chronic physical health conditions often have unmet mental health needs.
- Accessing appropriate mental healthcare presents challenges for these families.
- Parental perspectives are crucial for improving service delivery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parent perspectives on accessing mental healthcare for children with chronic physical health conditions.
- To identify barriers and facilitators to mental healthcare access.
- To inform service improvements within pediatric specialty clinics.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study utilizing semistructured interviews.
- Framework Analysis to analyze interview data.
- Identification of key attributes for a future Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE).
Main Results:
- Parents view mental healthcare as integral to overall child health.
- General practitioners and hospital teams are key initial contact points.
- Familiar hospital environments are preferred for accessing mental healthcare.
- Key service attributes include travel time, cost, wait time, availability, condition knowledge, and recommendations.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric specialty outpatient clinics are well-positioned to address mental health needs.
- Parents provided practical strategies for enhancing mental healthcare access.
- Further quantitative research will explore parent preferences for mental health services.
Objective:
To explore parent perspectives on accessing mental healthcare for children with a chronic physical health condition.
Design:
Qualitative research using semistructured interviews and Framework Analysis. Rankings were used to select attributes for a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE).
Setting:
Four specialty outpatient clinics (diabetes, epilepsy, bronchiectasis unrelated to cystic fibrosis and epidermolysis bullosa) at an Australian tertiary paediatric hospital.
Participants:
Eighteen parents of children with a chronical physical health condition.
Results:
Most parents identified the child's general practitioner and/or hospital team as an initial pathway to seek help if they were worried about their child's mental health. Parents see mental healthcare as part of care for the whole child and want the outpatient clinics to proactively discuss child and family mental health, as well as refer to appropriate services as needed. The hospital being a familiar, child-friendly environment was identified as a key reason the hospital might be a desired place to access mental healthcare, as previous research has found. Six attributes of mental health services were identified as important and will be included in an upcoming DCE: travel time, cost, wait time, available hours, knowledge of physical health condition, and recommendation.
Conclusions:
This study highlights the opportunity presented in specialist outpatient clinics to address the often unmet mental healthcare needs of children with chronic physical health conditions. Parents identified practical ways for outpatient clinics to better facilitate access to mental healthcare. These will be further explored through a quantitative study of parent preferences.
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