Mental Health Concerns of Teens During Pandemic

The rising teenage patients with mental health problems during the pandemic show that adolescent behavioral health is a growing concern, and need more vigilance.

The number of patients over age 12 who reported current suicidal thoughts, and then required direct observation, raised from 0.36% to 1.69% in 12 months after the pandemic began, according to recent screening program.

These findings emerged from a youth mental health screening program in Nemours’ ED in Wilmington, Del. The results were presented at the National Alliance on Mental Illness Virtual National Convention 2021.

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‘Nemours Children’s Health found that more teens have had suicidal thoughts during pandemic.’

“The biggest surprise was such a high number of positive screens, indicating mental health concerns, for patients presenting with complaints other than behavioral health” said Jennifer Cooper, BSN, RN, SANE‑P, Forensic Nurse Coordinator in the ED of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., who presented the findings.

The rising behavioral health patients during the pandemic show that adolescent behavioral health is a growing concern, and thus the need for vigilance is even greater.

Of the 2,743 teenage patients Nemours screened in the ED from March to December 2020, 770 reported signs of moderate or severe depression, and 215 reported current suicidal thoughts.

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As EDs provide nearly half of all hospital-associated medical care in the U.S., they can complement primary care as a very effective setting for youth mental health screening.

“Establishing an effective screening protocol can be tough. If it proves too complex for staff to implement, it will be underutilized, and the full benefit will not be realized,” said Cooper.

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Full support from ED leadership and clinical staff helped to identify and eliminate obstacles in the process. The reduced frequency of EHR reminders to use the screener, refined our criteria for excluding patients who were inappropriate for this screener, and automatically added counseling and social work recommendations in discharge papers for patients screened.

As of December 2020, Nemours reached a 62.3% mental health screening rate among all eligible patients, regardless of their reason for coming to the ED.

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Before the current program, ED staff had screened on average just 1.77% of eligible patients. Teens completed the screener themselves on a tablet, which many said provided autonomy and privacy to respond to the questions.

They have future plans like expanding the screening to younger patients, administering it in Spanish, revising it to accommodate lower reading comprehension levels, working to remove stigma around mental health, and providing a comprehensive wellness plan.

Source-Medindia