Mental health communications skills training for medical assistants in pediatric primary care.

Paraprofessional medical assistants (MAs) could help to promote pediatric primary care as a source of mental health services, particularly among patient populations who receive disparate mental health care. This project piloted a brief training to enhance the ability of MAs to have therapeutic encou...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 20 - 36
Main Authors: Brown JD, Wissow LS, Cook BL, Longway S, Caffery E, Pefaure C, Brown, Jonathan D, Wissow, Lawrence S, Cook, Benjamin L, Longway, Shaina, Caffery, Emily, Pefaure, Chris
Format: research Journal Article
Published: Springer Nature Jan2013
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104312302&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 104312302
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        10943412
        2WS
      jtl: Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research
      issn: 10943412
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jan2013
      vid: 40
      iid: 1
      pid: 237
      pub: Springer Nature
      place: New York, New York
    artinfo:
      ui:
        104312302
        NLM23070564
        2011932216
        10.1007/s11414-012-9292-0
        NLM23070564
        PMC4287209
        104312302
      ppf: 20
      ppct: 16
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
      tig:
        atl: Mental health communications skills training for medical assistants in pediatric primary care.
      aug:
        au:
          Brown JD
          Wissow LS
          Cook BL
          Longway S
          Caffery E
          Pefaure C
          Brown, Jonathan D
          Wissow, Lawrence S
          Cook, Benjamin L
          Longway, Shaina
          Caffery, Emily
          Pefaure, Chris
        affil: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc, Washington, DC 20002, USA
      sug:
        subj:
          Allied Health Personnel Education
          Communication Methods
          Mental Health Services Administration
          Primary Health Care Administration
          Professional-Family Relations
          Professional-Patient Relations
          Adolescence
          Child
          Child, Preschool
          Female
          Prospective Studies
          Human
          Interviews
          Male
          Mental Health
          Outcomes (Health Care)
          Parents
          Patient Satisfaction
          Pediatrics
          Pilot Studies
          Program Evaluation
          Questionnaires
          Socioeconomic Factors
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Child: 6-12 years
          Child, Preschool: 2-5 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: Paraprofessional medical assistants (MAs) could help to promote pediatric primary care as a source of mental health services, particularly among patient populations who receive disparate mental health care. This project piloted a brief training to enhance the ability of MAs to have therapeutic encounters with Latino families who have mental health concerns in pediatric primary care. The evaluation of the pilot found that MAs were able to master most of the skills taught during the training, which improved their ability to have patient-centered encounters with families during standardized patient visits coded with the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Parents interviewed 1 and 6 months following the training were more than twice as willing as parents interviewed 1 month before the training to discuss mental health concerns with MAs, and they had better perceptions of their interactions with MAs (all p < 0.01) even after controlling for a range of patient and visit characteristics. Before training, 10.2% of parents discussed a mental health concern with the MA but not the physician; this never happened 6 months after training. This pilot provides preliminary evidence that training MAs holds potential to supplement other educational and organizational interventions aimed at improving mental health services in pediatric primary care, but further research is necessary to test this type of training in other settings and among different patient populations.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N