The first week of October every year is designated as Mental Health Awareness Week in the United States – a pattern established by our Congress in 1990 to recognize the efforts of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI, www.nami.org) and increase awareness about mental health conditions. As we close out the end of Mental Health Awareness Week, I would like to focus on an important topic that sometimes ends up being overlooked or rushed through at a primary care visit: mental health screenings in the adolescent population.
According to results derived from a recent National Comorbidity Survey Replication, nearly 50% of all mental health conditions in the United States begin by age 14. Per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), suicide is currently the second leading cause of death in adolescents; 18% of high school students nationwide reported having seriously considered attempting suicide (females > males), and at least 9% had attempted suicide one or more times. Identifying a possible mental health diagnosis early in life — such as depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, eating disorders, or PTSD — can help save many individuals from life-altering consequences.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends annual mental health screenings for adolescents starting at age 12. While state Medicaid provisions in Texas previously only allowed for one mental health screening, total, to be billed between the ages of 12 and 18 as part of an annual well-child exam, recent Texas legislation passed on September 1, 2017 (HB 1600) now allows Medicaid reimbursement for up to once-a-year mental health screenings with well-child exams from the ages of 12-18, which is an important step in the right direction.
Texas, however, is currently in the midst of a mental health workforce shortage, especially in child and adolescent psychiatry. Although legislative efforts to address this shortage within the state are in progress, it renders the pediatrician or primary care doctor’s duty to address mental health within adolescent well-child visits absolutely imperative at this moment.
Screening questions/tools that can be used in an adolescent primary care mental health screening can include, but are not limited to:
- HEADDDSS Assessment:
- Home – living situation, safety in the home, relationships with family
- Education/Environment – address any learning/attention difficulties, friends and social circle, school and online bullying, social media (mis)use
- Activities – hobbies, extracurriculars, jobs
- Diet – include screening for disordered eating behaviors
- Drugs:
- Substance Use Screening Tool: CRAFFT (Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble)
- Depression/Suicidality:
- Sexual Activity/Sexuality/Sexual Abuse
- Anxiety Screening Tool: SCARED (Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders)
- Trauma Screening Tool: CATS (Child-Adolescent Trauma Screen)
- Pediatric Symptom Checklists (PSCs)
*Note: Mental health screenings for adolescents under Texas Medicaid must utilize at least 1 of the screening tools approved by Texas Health Steps, which includes the PSCs, the CRAFFT, and the PHQ-9.
For additional mental health information for patients, such as finding the closest behavioral health treatment centers, an excellent resource is the national SAMHSA website at https://www.samhsa.gov/treatment/index.aspx.
Anita Verma, MD
References:
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2013). Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Workforce Crisis: Solutions to Improve Early Intervention and Access to Care. https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/Advocacy/policy_resources/cap_workforce_crisis_201305.pdf
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2017). Recommendations for Preventative Pediatric Health Care. Bright Futures, 4th Ed. https://www.aap.org/en‐us/documents/periodicity_schedule.pdf
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Children’s Mental Health Report. CDC Features: Life Stages and Populations. https://www.cdc.gov/features/childrensmentalhealth/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). 1991-2015 High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey data. http://nccd.cdc.gov/YouthOnline/App/Default.aspx
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health: Adolescent Mental Health Fact Sheets. https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/facts-and-stats/national-and-state-data-sheets/adolescent-mental-health-fact-sheets/texas/index.html
HB 1600: Relating to certain mental health screenings under the Texas Health Steps program. http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=HB1600
Kessler R.C., et al. (2005). Lifetime Prevalence and Age of Onset Distributions of DSM‐IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 62(6): 593‐602. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15939837
Testimony of Pritesh Gandhi, MD, MPH, to the Texas House of Representatives Public Health Committee, in support of HB 1600, March 2017. Submitted on behalf of the Texas Pediatric Society, Texas Medical Association, and Texas Academy of Family Physicians. https://txpeds.org/sites/txpeds.org/files/documents/house-ph-hb1600-3-14-17.pdf
Pediatric Advocacy 