Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 23, 2024
Date Accepted: Mar 11, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Provider Perspectives on Implementation of an Enhanced Digital Screening Tool for Adolescent Depression and Suicidality: A Qualitative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The adolescent mental health crisis is growing. Pediatric primary care providers (PCPs) use mental health screens to identify symptoms but struggle to address need for services.
Objective:
To provide a web-based digital enhanced mental health screening tool for adolescents, targeting service use previously only evaluated in research studies, to PCPs in community settings, seeking real life feedback on implementation.
Methods:
Ten adolescent providers were recruited to trial the tool and participate in structured interviews based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research domains. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded according to a pre-specified codebook using a template analysis approach.
Results:
Providers identified improving mental health screening and treatment in primary care as a priority and agreed that a web-based digital enhanced screening tool could help facilitate identification of and management of adolescent depression. Salient barriers identified were lack of electronic health record integration, time, workflow, accessibility, and unclear organizational approval mechanisms for new technologies. Providers made multiple suggestions to enhance implementation such as customization options.
Conclusions:
Technology interventions can help address the need for improved behavioral health support in primary care settings. However, numerous barriers exist, complicating implementation of new technologies in real-world settings.
Citation
