Pediatric depression is a global concern that has fueled efforts for enhanced detection and treatment engagement. While many health systems have implemented components of depression screening protocols, there is limited evidence of effective follow-up for pediatric depression. A key barrier to prompt service linkage is timely team communication and coordination between clinicians and staff across service areas. This project aims to refine and test a team communication training implementation strategy to improve implementation of an existing pediatric depression screening protocol in a large pediatric healthcare system. The implementation strategy will target team mechanisms at the organizational-level and provider-level. Team communication training is hypothesized to lead to improved, efficient, and effective decision-making to increase the frequency of depression screening and timely service linkage. Findings are expected to yield better understanding of how to optimize team communication activities and patterns in the pediatric depression screening to treatment cascade. This should also culminate in improved patient engagement and outcomes, which are critical to address the youth mental health crisis.
TEAMS R34 #3: Developing and Testing a Team Communication Training Implementation Strategy for Depression Screening in a Pediatric Health Care System
Aim 1: Use mixed methods to refine a team communication training implementation strategy to improve implementation of an existing health system universal depression screening protocol (clinical intervention)
Aim 2: Use a two-arm hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness pilot trial to assess the initial effectiveness of the team communication training strategy on implementation of the depression screening protocol.
Aim 3: Use mixed methods to assess team/organizational (intra-organizational alignment, implementation climate) and team member/provider (communication, coordination, psychological safety, shared cognitions) mechanisms of the team communication training implementation strategy and a novel application of natural language processing methods.
