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Objective: The authors measured implementation of Zero Suicide (ZS) clinical practices that support identification of suicide risk and risk mitigation, including screening, risk assessment, and lethal means counseling, across mental health specialty and primary care settings. Methods: Six health care systems in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington participated. The sample included members ages ≥13 years from 2010 to 2019 (N=7,820,524 patients). The proportions of patients with suicidal ideation screening, suicide risk assessment, and lethal means counseling were estimated. Results: In 2019, patients were screened for suicidal ideation in 27.1% (range 5.0%–85.0%) of mental health visits and 2.5% (range 0.1%–35.0%) of primary care visits among a racially and ethnically diverse sample (44.9% White, 27.2% Hispanic, 13.4% Asian, and 7.7% Black). More patients screened positive for suicidal ideation in the mental health setting (10.2%) than in the primary care setting (3.8%). Of the patients screening positive for suicidal ideation in the mental health setting, 76.8% received a risk assessment, and 82.4% of those identified as being at high risk received lethal means counseling, compared with 43.2% and 82.4%, respectively, in primary care. Conclusions: Six health systems that implemented ZS showed a high level of variation in the proportions of patients receiving suicide screening and risk assessment and lethal means counseling. Two opportunities emerged for further study to increase frequency of these practices: expanding screening beyond patients with regular health care visits and implementing risk assessment with lethal means counseling in the primary care setting directly after a positive suicidal ideation screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine population-level disruption in psychotherapy before and after the rapid shift to virtual mental health care induced by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This retrospective study used electronic health record and insurance claims data from three U.S. health systems. The sample included 110,089 patients with mental health conditions who were members of the health systems' affiliated health plans and attended at least two psychotherapy visits from June 14, 2019, through December 15, 2020. Data were subdivided into two 9-month periods (before vs. after COVID-19 onset, defined in this study as March 14, 2020). Psychotherapy visits were measured via health records and categorized as in person or virtual. Disruption was defined as a gap of >45 days between visits. Visits in the preonset period were almost exclusively in person (97%), whereas over half of visits in the postonset period were virtual (52%). Approximately 35% of psychotherapy visits were followed by a disruption in the preonset period, compared with 18% in the postonset period. Disruption continued to be less common (adjusted OR=0.45) during the postonset period after adjustment for visit, mental health, and sociodemographic factors. The magnitude of the difference in disruption between periods was homogeneous across sociodemographic characteristics but heterogeneous across psychiatric diagnoses. This study found fewer population-level disruptions in psychotherapy receipt after rapid transition to virtual mental health care following COVID-19 onset. These data support the continued availability of virtual psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Addressing firearm access is recommended when patients are identified as being at risk of suicide. However, the practice of assessing firearm access is controversial, and no national guidelines exist to inform practice. This study qualitatively explored patient perspectives on a routine question about firearm access to optimize the patient centeredness of this practice in the context of suicide risk.Methods: Electronic health record data were used to identify primary care patients reporting depressive symptoms, including suicidal thoughts, within 2 weeks of sampling. Participants completed a semistructured telephone interview (recorded and transcribed), which focused broadly on the experience of being screened for suicidality and included specific questions to elicit beliefs and opinions about being asked a standard firearm access question. Directive (deductive) and conventional (inductive) content analysis was used to analyze responses to the portion of the interview focused on firearm assessment and disclosure.Results: Thirty-seven patients in Washington State ages 20-95 completed the qualitative interview by phone. Organizing themes included apprehensions about disclosing access to firearms related to privacy, autonomy, and firearm ownership rights; perceptions regarding relevance of the firearm question, informed by experiences with suicidality and common beliefs and misconceptions about the inevitability of suicide; and suggestions for connecting questions about firearms and other lethal means to suicide risk.Conclusions: Clarifying the purpose and use of routine firearm access assessment, contextualizing firearm questions within injury prevention broadly, and addressing misconceptions about suicide prevention may help encourage disclosure of firearm access and increase the patient centeredness of this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Guidelines recommend against prescribing antipsychotics without an indication, yet prescription rates remain undesirably high for youths. Information technology can facilitate guideline-based prescribing, but little is known about providers' needs. The Safer Use of Antipsychotics in Youth project is implementing an algorithm-based workflow for peer consultation, care navigation, and expedited psychotherapy access. To optimize workflow for a multisite trial, we engaged providers for input.Methods: Guided by human-centered design, we interviewed 15 providers from Kaiser Permanente Washington and Nationwide Children's Hospital about their prescribing barriers and workflow preferences. We identified qualitative themes on barriers affecting implementation and design opportunities to optimize workflow.Results: Providers expressed two major barriers: potential disruptions to clinical practice and threats to professional autonomy. Three design opportunities emerged: à la carte orders, passive review of orders, and consultation self-acknowledgment.Conclusions: Human-centered design offers an innovative approach to improve guideline-based prescribing with optimizations that are grounded in providers' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The authors sought to develop and validate models using electronic health records to predict suicide attempt and suicide death following an outpatient visit.Method: Across seven health systems, 2,960,929 patients age 13 or older (mean age, 46 years; 62% female) made 10,275,853 specialty mental health visits and 9,685,206 primary care visits with mental health diagnoses between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2015. Health system records and state death certificate data identified suicide attempts (N=24,133) and suicide deaths (N=1,240) over 90 days following each visit. Potential predictors included 313 demographic and clinical characteristics extracted from records for up to 5 years before each visit: prior suicide attempts, mental health and substance use diagnoses, medical diagnoses, psychiatric medications dispensed, inpatient or emergency department care, and routinely administered depression questionnaires. Logistic regression models predicting suicide attempt and death were developed using penalized LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) variable selection in a random sample of 65% of the visits and validated in the remaining 35%.Results: Mental health specialty visits with risk scores in the top 5% accounted for 43% of subsequent suicide attempts and 48% of suicide deaths. Of patients scoring in the top 5%, 5.4% attempted suicide and 0.26% died by suicide within 90 days. C-statistics (equivalent to area under the curve) for prediction of suicide attempt and suicide death were 0.851 (95% CI=0.848, 0.853) and 0.861 (95% CI=0.848, 0.875), respectively. Primary care visits with scores in the top 5% accounted for 48% of subsequent suicide attempts and 43% of suicide deaths. C-statistics for prediction of suicide attempt and suicide death were 0.853 (95% CI=0.849, 0.857) and 0.833 (95% CI=0.813, 0.853), respectively.Conclusions: Prediction models incorporating both health record data and responses to self-report questionnaires substantially outperform existing suicide risk prediction tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The authors sought to describe patterns of health care use prior to first diagnosis of a psychotic disorder in a population-based sample.Method: Electronic health records and insurance claims from five large integrated health systems were used to identify 624 patients 15-29 years old who received a first diagnosis of a psychotic disorder in any care setting and to record health services received, diagnoses assigned, and medications dispensed during the previous 36 months. Patterns of utilization were compared between patients receiving a first diagnosis of a psychotic disorder and matched samples of general health system members and members receiving a first diagnosis of unipolar depression.Results: During the year before a first psychotic disorder diagnosis, 29% of patients had mental health specialty outpatient care, 8% had mental health inpatient care, 24% had emergency department mental health care, 29% made a primary care visit with a mental health diagnosis, and 60% received at least one mental health diagnosis (including substance use disorders). Compared with patients receiving a first diagnosis of unipolar depression, those with a first diagnosis of a psychotic disorder were modestly more likely to use all types of health services and were specifically more likely to use mental health inpatient care (odds ratio=2.96, 95% CI=1.97-4.43) and mental health emergency department care (rate ratio=3.74, 95% CI=3.39-4.53).Conclusions: Most patients receiving a first diagnosis of a psychotic disorder had some indication of mental health care need during the previous year. General use of primary care or mental health services, however, does not clearly distinguish people who later receive a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder from those who later receive a diagnosis of unipolar depression. Use of inpatient or emergency department mental health care is a more specific indicator of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study sought to determine the impact of a pediatric behavioral health screening and colocation model on utilization of behavioral health care.Methods: In 2003, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Massachusetts public health system, introduced behavioral health screening and colocation of social workers sequentially within its pediatric practices. An interrupted time-series study was conducted to determine the impact on behavioral health care utilization in the 30 months after model implementation compared with the 18 months prior. Specifically, the change in trends of ambulatory, emergency, and inpatient behavioral health utilization was examined. Utilization data for 11,223 children ages ≥4 years 9 months to <18 years 3 months seen from 2003 to 2008 contributed to the study.Results: In the 30 months after implementation of pediatric behavioral health screening and colocation, there was a 20.4% cumulative increase in specialty behavioral health visit rates (trend of .013% per month, p=.049) and a 67.7% cumulative increase in behavioral health primary care visit rates (trend of .019% per month, p<.001) compared with the expected rates predicted by the 18-month preintervention trend. In addition, behavioral health emergency department visit rates increased 245% compared with the expected rate (trend .01% per month, p=.002).Conclusions: After the implementation of a behavioral health screening and colocation model, more children received behavioral health treatment. Contrary to expectations, behavioral health emergency department visits also increased. Further study is needed to determine whether this is an effect of how care was organized for children newly engaged in behavioral health care or a reflection of secular trends in behavioral health utilization or both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Studies of serious mental illnesses that use administrative databases have employed various criteria to establish diagnoses of interest. Several studies have assessed the validity of diagnostic inclusion criteria against research diagnoses. However, no studies have examined the effect of diagnostic inclusion criteria on prevalence and population characteristics across such groups. Methods: Administrative data for 2003-2010 from the Department of Veterans Affairs were used to calculate prevalence rates and assess effects of validity the diagnostic inclusion criteria on population composition for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Specifically, for each diagnosis, mutually exclusive sub-populations were compared on the basis of the following inclusion criteria for a given diagnosis: one treatment encounter, two outpatient encounters or one inpatient endisorder in the prior 12 months and since 2002 were also determined. Results: In 2010, moving from the broadest definitions of bipolar disorder (N=120.382), schizophrenia (N=91.977). and PTSD (N=554,028) to the most restrictive definitions reduced prevalence rates by, respectively, 28.7%, 34.9%, and 25.7%. with temporal trends for 2003-2010 paralleling results in 2010. Population composition changes with changing diagnostic inclusion criteria were variable, with predominantly small odds ratios. Conclusions: Population composition was relatively robust across common diagnostic inclusion criteria for each condition. Thus choice of criteria can focus on considerations of diagnostic validity and case-finding needs. Three mechanisms for the impact of diaanostic criteria on population composition in administrative data sets are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has undergone significant organizational transformation as part of a comprehensive strategic plan to enhance mental health services. Organizational change can create stress and decrease employee morale, even if the change is beneficial for patients and the organization. The study examined whether psychiatrists' work satisfaction and work environment perceptions changed during a period of transformation. Facility-level turnover rate was also examined. Methods: Data were analyzed from 7,218 psychiatrists who responded to an annual organizational survey between 2004 and 2010 (excluding 2005) conducted with 139 facilities. Survey ratings were regressed on individual and facility-level characteristics in a multilevel model. Adjusted mean scores for the measures were compared with Tukey post hoc tests to identify significant differences by year. Results: Most satisfaction ratings on measures hnproved after the initial actions for strategic reform and stabilized in 2006. Turnover rates and intention to leave were also consistent during this time. Positive linear trends over time were observed for pay satisfaction, management for achievement, skill development, workplace civility, and satisfaction with senior management. Conclusions: Extensive reorganization of VHA mental health services was associated with improvements in psychiatrists' workplace satisfaction, and these increases were sustained over time. In the current climate of rapid transformation under health care reform nationally, the VHA experience may inform the broader national process and organizational strategies to improve and maintain the morale of the health care workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to ascertain the relative importance of scientific "approval" versus U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory approval regarding changes in aripiprazole prescribing rates for treating bipolar disorder and to identify systemlevel covariates associated with faster regional uptake of aripiprazole. Methods: Medication use data for 2002-2009 were obtained from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) National Psychosis Registry for 106,547 patients with diagnoses of bipolar disorder, aggregated at the level of the Veterans Integrated Service Nehvork (VISN). VISN-level independent variables were obtained from several VHA organizational databases. Interrupted time-series analysis was used to examine changes in rates of prescribing aripiprazole, and logistic regression was used to model aboveversus below-median growth in aripiprazole prescribing across VISNs. Results: Three inflections were observed, corresponding to the publication of two positive studies and FDA approval of aripiprazole for the treatment of bipolar mania. No significant VISN-level policy, administrative, or staffing predictors of the growth rate in aripiprazole prescribing were identified. Exploratory analyses showed that access to care may play a role in uptake, whereas competing demands, such as substance abuse treatment needs, may retard adoption. Conclusions: Early published evidence may have a strong impact on practice for low-barrier innovations, such as newly marketed medications or changes in indication for approved medications. Regional targeting of prescriber behavior interventions may maximize efficiency in efforts to change prescribing; further delineation of factors associated with regional heterogeneity in prescribing would support such efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]