Pediatric Mental Health Practice Change: A Scalable Model for Training and Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pediatric Mental Health
• Primary Care Practice

Background:

• Primary care clinicians (PCCs) require enhanced skills for pediatric mental health conditions.
• A comprehensive continuing medical education (CME) program was developed to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a theory-based measurement tool assessing PCCs' knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions in pediatric mental health.
• To examine the impact of a CME program on PCCs' readiness to manage pediatric mental health issues.

Main Methods:

• An 898-clinician cohort completed a 68-item assessment at baseline, post-workshop, and 6-month follow-up.
• Principal-components analysis identified 10 domains, differentiating primary care-common disorders (PC-CDs) from specialty-level disorders (S-LDs).
• Mixed-effects regression models analyzed changes over time and predictors of behavioral intentions.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements in knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions were observed post-workshop and sustained at 6 months for PC-CDs.
• Increased knowledge and comfort with S-LDs predicted stronger behavioral intentions for both common and specialty conditions.
• PCCs trained during the COVID-19 pandemic showed slightly larger and more persistent improvements.

Conclusions:

• The CME model effectively improved PCCs' readiness for pediatric mental health care delivery.
• The measurement tool reliably captured changes and offers a framework for evaluating pediatric mental health training.
• The findings support the utility of this CME approach and measurement tool in primary care settings.