Tag: access

Reading of the Week: Brief CBT for Suicidal Inpatients – the New JAMA Psych Study; Also, Medicaid & Access, and Dr. Yager on Turning Off the Lights

September 19, 2024 /

From the Editor

After a suicide attempt, he was admitted through our ED. The hospitalization has been helpful: we changed his medications; the family is now more understanding of his problems; he has worked on safety planning with the team. However, could more be offered? It’s a relevant question – particularly for someone like me (I’ve worked on inpatient wards for most of my career).

In the first selection from JAMA Psychiatry, Gretchen J. Diefenbach (of Yale University) and her co-authors describe a randomized clinical trial involving 200 inpatients who received either the usual care or a focused CBT, tailored for short admissions. The one common factor: all participants had had a suicide attempt in the week prior to admission or current suicidal ideation along with a suicide attempt in the past two years. “Brief cognitive behavioral therapy–inpatient reduced 6-month post-discharge suicide reattempts and rate of readmissions when added to treatment as usual.” We discuss the paper and the clinical implications.

Inpatient care: preventing suicide with CBT?

How accessible is mental healthcare in the US? In the second selection, Dr. Diksha Brahmbhatt and William L. Schpero (both of Cornell University) look at Medicaid recipients and psychiatric appointments in a research letter for JAMA. Using a “secret shopper” approach, they contacted clinicians in four cities, trying to book a psychiatric appointment for those covered by the public program. “In the largest Medicaid managed care plans across 4 of the largest US cities, only 17.8% of clinicians listed as in-network for Medicaid were reachable, accepted Medicaid, and could provide a new patient appointment.”

And in the third selection, Dr. Joel Yager (of the University of Colorado), a retired psychiatrist, writes personally in a piece for JAMA. In his later years, Dr. Yager’s father helped his older friends and neighbours with the burden of aging, including visiting them in hospitals when they were ill. Now, he is doing what his father did. “After all, someone has to be around to put out the lights.”

This month, the Reading of the Week celebrates its 10th anniversary. A quick word of thanks for the ongoing interest. I’ll reflect more in the coming weeks.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Can Chatbots & AI Help Access? The new Nature Med Paper; Also, Telepsych in the US and the Latest in the News

February 15, 2024 /

From the Editor

More and more organizations use AI; today, a chatbot might assist you in ordering a pizza or tracking a package. But could a chatbot help our patients find the mental health care that they need? Could it help self-identified members of ethnic groups – who historically do less well in getting services – with access?

Johanna Habicht (of Limbic) and her co-authors try to answer these questions in a new study for Nature Medicine. They looked at the use of a chatbot for self-referral against the standard option in the UK’s NHS when patients seek psychological care. The resulting multisite observational study involved almost 130 000 people. They found that AI increased referrals (especially, in terms of diversity). “Here we demonstrate that digital tools can reduce the accessibility gap by addressing several key barriers.” We look at the study and mull its implications.

As we move past the pandemic, we ask: is virtual care routinely offered for mental disorders? In the second selection from JAMA Health Forum, Jonathan Cantor (of the RAND Corporation) and his colleagues consider mental telehealth – or telepsychiatry, to use the older term – in the United States. With a secret shopper approach, trained callers phoned more than 1 400 US clinics, posing as potential clients with mental health problems. They found most offered virtual care. Further: “There were no differences in the availability of mental telehealth services based on the prospective patient’s clinical condition, perceived race or ethnicity, or sex.”

And, finally, we explore the latest in the news with recent articles from The Guardian and The New York Times. Among the topics: the mental health struggles of rising political star Lina Hidalgo, privacy and mental health apps, and help for those with schizophrenia and homelessness in Cameroon.

DG

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Reading of the Week: After COVID – the New Lancet Psychiatry Paper; Also, Clark on Therapy (QT) and Physicians, Heal Thyselves (JAMA Net Open)

September 1, 2022 /

From the Editor

The first reported cases were almost three years ago. Yet, with this pandemic, many questions remain. No wonder. The patient experience is so varied. Some of our patients complain of time-limited, mild symptoms. Others seem affected by ongoing, non-physical symptoms. And many haven’t had any symptoms.

How common are neurological and psychiatric problems? Do they last? Are they less common with newer variants? This week, in the first selection, we consider a new Lancet Psychiatry paper; Max Taquet (of the University of Oxford) and his co-authors try to answer these questions and others. Drawing on the health records of almost 1.3 million people with a recorded diagnosis of COVID-19 and focusing on 14 different outcomes (including anxiety and mood disorders) across eight nations, they find: “post-COVID neurological and psychiatric outcomes followed different risk trajectories: the risk of cognitive deficit, dementia, psychotic disorder, and epilepsy or seizures remained increased at 2 years after a COVID-19 diagnosis, while the risks of other diagnoses (notably, mood and anxiety disorders) subsided early and showed no overall excess over the 2-year follow-up.” We look at the paper and its clinical implications.

In this week’s second selection, we consider a new Quick Takes podcast interview with David Clark (of the University of Oxford). Prof. Clark speaks about IAPT, the UK’s program to expand access to psychotherapy, which he co-founded. “We’ve still got some distance to go, though, but the IAPT services are seeing about a million people a year who wouldn’t have previously had psychological therapy.”

Primary care has an essential role in our health care system. In the third selection, Emily Rhodes (of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) and her co-authors mull physicians and their personal connection to primary care in a new JAMA Network Open paper. They find: physicians are less likely to be rostered with family docs, and less likely to visit them. They conclude: “Emphasis on the importance and improvement of access to primary care for physicians is a potential means to improve overall health for physicians and patients.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Suicide and Gender in Canada; Also, Access and Immigrants (CJP), and Chok on Variations on a Theme (CMAJ)

June 3, 2021 /

From the Editor

This week, we have three selections; all are from Canadian publications.

Suicide rates have been declining in this country. In the first selection, Sara Zulyniak (of the University of Calgary) and her co-authors look at suicide by age and gender, drawing on almost two decades’ worth of data. In their analysis, there is a surprising finding: “The suicide rates in females aged 10 to 19 and 20 to 29 were increasing between 2000 and 2018. In comparison, no male regression results indicated significantly increasing rates.” This research letter, just published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, is short and relevant.

chair

In the second selection, also from The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Joanna Marie B. Rivera (of Simon Fraser University) and her co-authors consider access to care. They focus on immigrants and nonimmigrants, noting differences in the way care is provided for those with mood disorders. “People with access to team-based primary care are more likely to report mental health consultations, and this is especially true for immigrants. Unfortunately, immigrants, and especially recent immigrants, are more likely to see a doctor in solo practice or use walk-in clinics as a usual place of care.”

Finally, in our third selection from CMAJ, Dr. Rozalyn Chok (of the University of Alberta), a pianist who is now a resident of paediatrics, describes a performance at a mental hospital. “I still hear exactly how it sounded on that tinny upright piano. I feel the uneven weighting of the keys, remember how difficult it was to achieve the voicing – the balance of melody and harmony – I wanted.” She reflects on the piece she played, and its impact on a patient.

DG

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Reading of the Week: COVID & Mental Health Access in China (AJP); also, Transformational Care (EBMH) and Psych Wards (New Yorker)

April 30, 2020 /

From the Editor

What’s the latest in the literature on COVID and mental health? This week, we focus again on the pandemic with three selections.

In the first, we consider a paper on mental health services at a Chinese hospital during the pandemic. In this American Journal of Psychiatry study, Dr. Junying Zhou (of Sichuan University) and co-authors report on a survey of existing and new outpatients, finding major problems with access. Among the findings: one in five found that their mental health had deteriorated due to a lack of access to care. The authors advocate further study to “ameliorate the negative impact of viral outbreaks in the general public, especially among those vulnerable patients with mental problems.”

coronavirus-4945950_960_720

Will COVID change health care once the virus has burned out? In the second selection, we consider a new EBMH editorial by Dr. Katharine Smith (of Oxford University) and her co-authors. They write: “In order to reappraise effectively our new ways of working, both in the immediate management of issues during the pandemic and also during the longer-term aftermath, we need fast-track implementation of evidence-based medicine techniques in mental health to supply the best evidence to clinicians on specific questions in real time.”

Finally, in the third selection, we look at an essay from The New Yorker. Reporter Masha Gessen argues that psychiatric wards are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic. Gessen speaks to several doctors who offer a similar if haunting story: “how a lack of testing, P.P.E., and seclusion protocols were making a difficult task – maintaining the safety of a highly vulnerable population and their care workers during a pandemic – virtually impossible.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: CBT for Depression – What Really Works? The New JAMA Psychiatry Paper

April 25, 2019 /

From the Editor

“It changed my life.”

A few years ago, a patient described to me how helpful cognitive behavioural therapy was for him. CBT wasn’t his only treatment – he had a couple of medication trials – but he found the psychotherapy to be very helpful.

Others have had a similar experience, but CBT isn’t widely available in Canada; Puyat et al. found in a Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper that the vast majority of people with depression don’t receive any form of psychotherapy or counseling. How can we address this access gap? Could different forms of CBT work including those that are less resource intensive? What to make of self-help?

In this Reading, we consider a new paper by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Pim Cuijpers and his co-authors that seeks to answer these questions. They use a network meta-analysis to compare five treatment formats with each other and control conditions (waiting list, care as usual, and pill placebo). Their conclusion: “This study suggests that group, telephone, and guided self-help treatments are effective interventions that may be considered as alternatives to individual CBT.”

dr-aaron-beck-at-work-595048284-5af62b4dae9ab80036aca7faAaron Beck: How to deliver the CBT he has championed (and should we all wear a bow tie)?

In this Reading, we consider the big paper and its big result, and the accompanying editorial by the University of Pittsburgh’s Dr. Holly A. Swartz and Jay Fournier.

DG

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Reading of the Week: How to Think about Practice Today – And Tomorrow? A New CJP Paper, a Podcast, and a Report

March 7, 2019 /

From the Editor

How do we practice today – and how will we practice in the future?

This week’s Reading includes three selections.

In the first selection, we consider how we practice today, with a new paper by University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s David Rudoler and his co-authors. Drawing on administrative data, they look for practice patterns, finding three distinct ones. Spoiler alert: practice patterns are very different, with 30% of psychiatrists seeing just two or fewer patients per month.

Then, we look ahead. In the second selection, we consider a new podcast discussing digital psychiatry. I talk with Dr. John Torous of the Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. And, yes, he has tips on good apps for your patients.

Finally, in the third selection, we consider the recent Ontario government report on ending hallway medicine. The authors look to the future, and make several suggestions, including embracing the potential of digital health care.

messaging-appsApps – the future?

Enjoy.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Remembering Dr. Elliot Goldner

December 22, 2016 /

From the Editor

I met him just once. Dr. Elliot Goldner was invited to give the Distinguished Member Lecture at the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s 2015 Annual Conference in Vancouver. Before a packed room, he gave a lucid speech on the state of the system – a speech peppered with insights and statistics, drawn from numerous papers; it was mesmerizing. After, he stayed to talk with people, and I joined the group that had gathered. Late for my own presentation, I received angry texts from my co-presenter. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk further about the access issues that he had so clearly discussed.

But if we met just once, over the years, I have read many of the papers that Dr. Goldner wrote and co-wrote. A Goldner paper – like a Goldner presentation – is impressive and memorable.

Dr. Goldner died in late November.

Dr. Elliot Goldner

In this Reading, we look at his life and career through the comments of some colleagues. We also consider his 2011 Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper on access and psychiatry.

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Reading of the Week: First Episode Psychosis and Access – The Anderson-Kurdyak Paper, and More

October 20, 2016 /

From the Editor

“If your son or daughter had cancer or diabetes, do you think it would be reasonable for them to wait? I don’t think it’s any different for mental illness.”

Access. It’s one of the biggest problems with mental health services.

How big is the access problem? What can be done about it?

This week, we consider a new paper looking at access and first episode psychosis. Dr. Paul Kurdyak, a CAMH psychiatrist and a program lead with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, made the above comment to the CBC when discussing this new paper. In it, Kelly Anderson and Dr. Kurdyak find that 40% of patients didn’t receive physician follow-up in the month after diagnosis. Imagine – tying back to Dr. Kurdyak’s comment – if 40% of young patients with leukemia didn’t have physician follow-up in a month after their cancer diagnosis.

We also look at the discussion around a new federal-provincial accord with an op ed written by Michael Wilson, the chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada – particularly timely as the ministers of health met this week with an eye on a new accord.

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Reading of the Week: Kurdyak’s New Paper on Access

September 22, 2016 /

From the Editor

As medical school classes have grown, the supply of physicians has increased across the country. Has this helped address access issues in psychiatry?

How have practice patterns changed over time?

This week’s Reading seeks to answer some basic and important questions around physician supply and access in psychiatry. Following up on a major paper written in 2014, Kurdyak et al. have written another important and relevant paper.

The long and the short of it: there are significant problems with access – and they aren’t getting any better with time.

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