Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Improving Mental Health Documentation Through Education: An Intervention For Level Of Care Utilization System (Locus) Use In Psychiatric Crisis Placement, Lauren Ozimek

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Purpose: The Community Mental Health Act (1963) created crisis stabilization units to lessen burdens of emergency departments addressing psychiatric crises. Crisis stabilization units – including the project site – evaluate treatment efficacy via assessments including the Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS). The LOCUS is totaled into a composite score, expected to decrease at treatment completion. The project site has not consistently seen LOCUS scores decrease at completion. The project’s purpose was to improve use of a clinical assessment tool to reflect treatment and progress for patients utilizing crisis stabilization programs. A secondary aim was to increase incidence (75%) of …

Adolescent Suicide Prevention Via Parental Education, Junelle Shepard, Mary Val Palumbo

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Purpose. Up to 24% of children from the ages of 12 to 17 have reported suicidal ideation, with 7-11% reporting at least one suicide attempt in the past 12 months (Hetrick, 2017). In a study by Jones et al (2019) over 50% of parents were unaware their child was exhibiting suicidal ideation. This project aims to increase community awareness of suicidal ideation and teach community members how to talk with adolescents about this sensitive topic.

Methods. Five online training sessions were offered in Fall 2021, with each session lasting 90 minutes. Using Smith et al.’s Suicide Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire, …

Combating Seasonal Affective Disorder In Vermont, Prasanna Kumar

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a cyclical pattern of depression-like symptoms that occur during the winter months. In Vermont, SAD is estimated to affect up to 10% of individuals. An informational flyer was developed that explained the symptoms of SAD, what the treatment options are, and then linked individuals with local resources for wellness activities in Chittenden County using QR codes in order to prevent SAD. The flyer was distributed at the Community Health Care Centers of Burlington South End office. The flyer was met with enthusiasm and will be given out to patients at the end of this season …

Coping Skills For Daily Life: Cost-Effective Strategies To Prevent And Address Mental Health Disorders, Shae Ian Rowlandson

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Mental health disorders, along with their associated cost and negative outcomes, have continued to persist in Vermont and have become one of the largest, growing challenges to public health in the United States. Unfortunately, Vermont does not appear to have enough resources or providers to optimally address it. Concurrently, coping strategies of minimal cost that have the potential to prevent or address mental health disorders may often be underutilized or misconstrued by the population. A pamphlet providing information on evidenced, cost-effective coping strategies was designed and distributed to providers and patients to enable patients with the skills to help themselves …

Using Word Embeddings To Explore The Language Of Depression On Twitter, Sandhya Gopchandani

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

How do people discuss mental health on social media? Can we train a computer program to recognize differences between discussions of depression and other topics? Can an algorithm predict that someone is depressed from their tweets alone? In this project, we collect tweets referencing “depression” and “depressed” over a seven year period, and train word embeddings to characterize linguistic structures within the corpus. We find that neural word embeddings capture the contextual differences between “depressed” and “healthy” language. We also looked at how context around words may have changed over time to get deeper understanding of contextual shifts in the …

Hidden Adolescent Risks: Provider Education On Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Bailey Fay

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been shown to be a strong risk factor for suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. One study has shown over 50% of people engaging in NSSI have at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime. The 2015 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey found 17% of high school students reported non-suicidal self-injury at least once in the past year. This reflects roughly one in four females and one in ten males. Furthermore, these numbers have increased significantly since 2013. In an effort to promote awareness of NSSI in the primary care setting, a handout was created for providers …

Psychotherapy: Skills And Resilience Through Self-Knowledge, Gilana Finogenov

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

At least 20% of all primary care visits are related to mental health. A limited number of patients are being referred to therapy, even though therapy is shown to be as effective as medication for disorders like depression and anxiety. A pamphlet was designed to explain what psychotherapy is to patients and to describe several common therapy modalities.