Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Health Impacts Of Remote Work, Tin Nhan Nguyen

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Remote work has increased in frequency in the past few years with a notable rise in Connecticut. While working from home has certain benefits, it can also increase the risk of certain physical and mental health issues. An educational pamphlet on the health impacts of remote work with suggestions to reduce negative effects was developed and distributed to community members.

Improving Depression Screening Protocol And Subsequent Sbirt Referrals, Mclaine S. Rich

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

As a federally qualified health center, Lamoille Health Family Medicine receives annual data evaluating their performance in a number of categories. They exceeded expectations in screening eligible patients for depression, yet did not see the same success in referrals following a positive screening. After discussing with nursing and physician staff it became clear that there were discrepancies regarding office workflow/specific responsibilities. Moreover, some physicians expressed that they were unsure exactly how to handle positive screening results. This flowsheet developed will alleviate confusion in who is responsible for each step of screening, and uses evidence based guidelines for when to refer …

New Americans Accessing Mental Health Services, Alexander M. Kubacki

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Suicide Screening At Tchc, William J. Yakubik Iii

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Vermont is currently battling with a mental health epidemic and one of the consequences of mental illness is suicide and self-harm. According to the Vermont Department of Health Vermont’s suicide rate is higher than the national average and suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in the state. Every part of medicine especially primary care is struggling with providing adequate resources for the demand needed to provide quality mental health care. Thomas Chittenden Health Center (TCHC) is no stranger to these demands and is working on ways to ensure each patient has access to the care they need. The …

Improving Mental Health Access In A Rural Setting Via Telehealth, Timothy W. Greenfield

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

There are several barriers patients face when accessing mental healthcare in rural areas including: lack of internet, lack of resources, and stigma.

Local options are limited, and patients face barriers such as access to transportation.

These factors position telehealth as a unique, tangible solution for patients in the community.

Community Services For Patient Referral Document, Jett Choquette

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Patients have a need for referral to a variety of services that directly relate to their health and wellbeing that are not generally included in the traditional referral system of healthcare networks. These services include (but are not limited to) social work support, pandemic support, elderly services, LQBTQ+ services, intimate partner violence services, functional medicine, and substance use disorder and mental health support and treatment. Because these services are not part of the traditional healthcare referral system, healthcare providers may not have an up-to-date list of organizations and programs in the community that could provide these needed services. This is …

Creating A Screening Tool To Prevent Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv), Ankrish B. Milne

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Increasing Mental Health Resource Access During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Valerie Braddick

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Cbt In Primary Care, Brianna J. Spano

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This is a community improvement project designed to address the growing need for and shortage of mental health care in Vermont. The project focuses on creating a brief training tool and guide for primary care physicians to be able to incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy in their practice.

Promoting Community Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Erik J. Zhang

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected aspects of health and community beyond the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, including chronic health conditions, mental health, substance use, food insecurity, access to healthcare, and housing insecurity. Further, existing disparities in these factors and other social determinants of health such as socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood, and physical environment have been exacerbated by the response to the COVID- 19 pandemic. Community members face negative health impacts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and response. They should be made aware of community resources for immediate and long-term solutions to the difficulties they experience.

Improving The Therapeutic Environment In The Crisis Stabilization Unit At Glens Falls Hospital, Emma Hall

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

The Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) at Glens Falls Hospital provides a separate, safe space within the Emergency Department for adults and children struggling with mental health crises to stabilize before discharge or admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit. An increase in mental health crises over the past 10+ years plus a shortage of nearby inpatient beds, especially for adolescents and children, has led to longer stays in the CSU. Longer stays in a place not built for therapeutic intervention but rather for crisis stabilization may lead to increased agitation, prolonged stays or prolonged time to stabilize a patient, and potentially …

Opportunities For Patient Self-Reflection During Acute Phase Of Depression Treatment, Millen Abselab

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project for UVMMC Family Medicine at Hinesburg investigates the acute phase of depression treatment for adult patients and introduces opportunities for patient empowerment during this 4-to-6-week window through de-identified automated text surveys for self-reflection about treatment and pattern tracking contributory to mood. Sample text survey built on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and deployment of text surveys is based on Mosio. Future interventions can utilize mobile phone apps based on patient response to surveys.

Community Resources Addressing Peripartum Depression, Tiffany L. Lao

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Peripartum mood disorders affect a large proportion of new mothers as well as their families, partners, and support systems. This project aims to provide patients with information about peripartum mood disorders as part of their initial prenatal packet. Also included are a list of local community resources specifically addressing peripartum mood disorders for patients seeking additional support outside of their primary care office.

Setting Expectations For Mental Healthcare Referral, Emily Bennett

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Patients are referred to mental health care by their primary care providers, but there is often a misunderstanding of what that process looks like. This project aimed to understand the referral process and create improvements that will help patients stay engaged to improve their mental wellbeing.

Mental Health Technology During The Era Of Covid-19, Michael Tabet

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Mental health symptoms - especially those of depression and anxiety - have become more prevalent during the COVID pandemic. As seen in previous years, direct and indirect costs of depression can be staggering. Apps exist on smart devices that are based in evidence-based practices that can be therapeutic for mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. A simple handout with some suggested popular mental health apps and accompanying descriptions was created to be used in the CVPH Family Medicine clinic to increase awareness of these apps among patients suffering from depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Increasing Patient Access To Lgbtq+ Healthcare Through Expanding The Vermont Diversity Health Project, Rachel Harrison

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Numerous studies have documented various disparities in health outcomes and barriers to healthcare access for LGBTQ+ individuals. One major way to combat this is to increase access to healthcare for LGBTQ+ patients and increase provider knowledge of how to best care for them. Through expanding the Vermont Diversity Health Project database of providers and having providers participate in LGBTQ+ Best Practices trainings (both hosted by Pride Center of Vermont), we may reduce LGBTQ+ health disparities in our local community.

Improving Access To Meditation And Mindfulness For The Management Of Anxiety, Stress, And Other Chronic Diseases Of Chronic, Jesse Naumann, Alex Cohen

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Chronic diseases can have an enormous burden on not only an individual’s quality of life, but their economic output as well. The challenge is that many patients with a chronic disease are not fully treated despite many different medications and doctor’s appointments. Mindfulness is an extremely beneficial tool that can be used as an adjunctive treatment for different chronic health diseases including anxiety, depression, insomnia, chronic pain, and many others. An enormous barrier is that many patients are unsure about what mindfulness truly is, and where one can go about accessing mindfulness resources. Our goal was to create a quick …

Assessment And Awareness Of Mental Health Conditions Among Refugees In Vermont, Sandi Caus

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Refugees experience profound hardship in their home-country, displaced country and throughout the period of re-settlement. Experiences like direct or indirect exposure to traumatic events, torture, sexual abuse and stigmatized refugee identity post-resttlement are major risk factors for the development of mental health coniditions inlcuding PTSD, depression and psychosis. Despite major risk factors for the development of mental health conditions, culturally-specific mental health stigma persists as a major barrier to addressing mental health among refugees. This project emphasizes techniques and self-education that can be utilized to improve mentah health screening and identification among refugee patients in Vermont.

Assessing Barriers To Mental Health Resources, Young Bo Sim

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project was done to assess patients' barriers to mental health services in Newtown Primary Care. The project focused on identifying and developing questionnaires to assess if there were any perceived barriers and what those barriers were.

Phq-9, But In Spanish, Jose Calderon

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Spanish speaking patients are often missed for depression. A common issue is lack of awareness of the Spanish version of the PHQ-9

Addressing Adolescent And Young Adult Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Megan Boyer

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This quality improvement project at South Burlington Family Medicine aimed to investigate the mental health of individuals ages 13-25 in our practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible patients received a PHQ-9 questionnaire with two additional questions related to COVID-19. Recommendations for future interventions to serve this population were made based on these preliminary findings, with the goal of doing a full PDSA cycle in the near future.

Patient Education On The Association Of Hormonal Contraception With Depression, Julia E. Hannigan

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Hormonal contraceptive agents are widely used by women during their reproductive years. In recent years, research has been released linking hormonal contraception with the initiation of antidepressant medication and a first diagnosis of depression. More research is still warranted in order to further elucidate the relationship between hormonal contraception and depression, but current evidence prompts the necessity for shared decision making between clinicians and women considering treatment with hormonal contraceptive agents. The goal of this project is to give providers easily accessible patient educational materials in the form of epic smart phrases to aid in informed decision making.

Improving Access To Mental Health Care For Trauma Patients, Kassandra Gibbs

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

It can be difficult to locate a mental health provider in Vermont. Consequently, many individuals with mental illnesses look to their primary care physicians to fill this gap. This project highlights difficulties faced by patients with PTSD and complex PTSD in Chittenden and Addison counties in finding a therapist or psychiatrist. A resource handout was created with instructions on how to find a therapist in VT and a list of practitioners in Addison and Chittenden counties who specialize in trauma. In addition, a patient information sheet that answers some questions about PTSD and complex PTSD and also provides a list …

Perinatal Depression: Breaking Barriers To Treatment, Florence Lambert-Fliszar

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Depression in the perinatal period is a common medical issue in Vermont, affecting about 10% of women. Multiple and severe consequences of depression during this time are seen for both mothers and babies, including lower breastfeeding rates, fewer healthcare visits for the child, and psychopathology in the child later on. The goal of this project is to identify and address some of the barriers we currently face in identifying and treating women for depression. Major barriers women encounter in seeking help involve poor recognition of symptoms facing increasing stress of motherhood, stigma, as well as neglecting to attend to mental …

Assessing Barriers To Mental Health Treatment, Britta J. Kilgus

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

It has been well established that individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders face numerous barriers to accessing adequate health care treatment including inability to pay, lack of insurance coverage, lack of provider availability, and stigma. The 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment for Washington County, Vermont identified substance use and mental health as priority health needs for the county. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the specific barriers individuals with mental health and substance use disorders are experiencing in Waterbury, Vermont. A survey was distributed to patients being seen at Waterbury Family Practice with behavioral health or …

The Association Of Hormonal Contraception With Depression, Pamela Derickson

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Hormonal contraceptives are widely used by women during their reproductive years. Currently, over 100 million women worldwide use the pill, and 82% of sexually active women in the USA will use oral contraceptive pills at some time during their reproductive years (Carrol, 2017). Oral contraceptive use, especially among adolescents, is associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression may be a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use (Skovlund, 2016). This project focused on educating health care providers at the Community Health Center of Burlington, VT (CHCB) about the association of depression and oral …

Mental Health Screening In Nursing Homes, Meghan Breen

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Depression and dementia are two of the most common mental health conditions in nursing homes. Screening for these conditions does not have to be difficult or time consuming, but doing it can significantly improve the health of nursing home residents. The WHO-Five for depression and the Mini-Mental Status Exam are both sensitive, specific, and time-sensitive. Using these screening in a nursing home in rural Vermont helped improve the accuracy of patient records and impacted medical care.

Bridging The Gap Between The Primary Care Physician And Accessible Resources For Patients With Mental Health Needs, Tracey Dafonte

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Mental illness and maintaining mental health is a significant problem in the world, the United States, and here in Vermont. The burden of mental illness can lead to disability, lost work productivity, and at its worst, suicide. Vermont ranks 14th in the United States for rates of death by suicide. Many people struggle every day with mental health needs from depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and more. The aim of this project was to create a mental health resource card that can be used in primary care offices to provide patients with information to get the help they need and attempt …

Increasing Access To Community Support Groups For Patients With Mental Health Needs: A Guide For Primary Care Physicians, Daniel Haddad

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

A large percentage of patients seen by primary care physicians suffer from mental health afflictions that are requiring increasingly more time and resources to treat. There is a lack of mental health providers to meet the needs of the community which result in 3-6 month waiting periods for patients to get an appointment with mental health providers. More mental health resources are needed to help family practitioners address this problem.