Abstract

Major depressive disorder is a mental illness that impacts adolescents' mental health. Effective treatments for major depressive disorder are available. Barriers such as clinicians' perceptions that adolescents should be referred to a child and adolescent psychiatrist when seeking mental health services marginalize the value of screening. This evidence-based quality improvement project aimed to implement a clinician-education intervention in an outpatient behavioral health clinic in a border town in Southwest Arizona using established guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments. This quality improvement project aimed to strengthen clinician use of the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), strengthen clinician practice implementation of evidence-based strategies to screen and treat adolescent depression, and expand access to mental health services for adolescents with depression symptoms. Five licensed clinicians participated in this quality improvement project. Kurt Lewin's 3-Step Change Model, which involves unfreezing the current state, making the necessary changes, and refreezing the state, served as the guiding framework for this quality improvement (QI) project. Despite these efforts, the QI project did not achieve its goals, as evidenced by the decrease in the number of patients seen and PHQ-9s completed after the intervention. The quality improvement project data demonstrated that further clinician education and support are required when adopting a quality improvement initiative focused on adolescent depression. Future QI initiatives are needed to develop innovative ways to improve clinician education interventions and adolescent depression management.

Gina Botello

Author Details

Gina Botello, DNP(c), PMHNP-BC, FNP-C

Sigma Membership

Theta Tau

Lead Author Affiliation

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

Translational Research/Evidence-based Practice

Keywords:

Major Depressive Disorder, Patient Health, Clinician Education, Suicide, Adolescent Mental Health

Advisor

O'Haver, Judith

Second Advisor

McManis, Beth

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Northern Arizona University

Degree Year

2024

Rights Holder

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Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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