Measuring the quality of interprofessional collaboration in child mental health collaborative care

<p><strong>Objective: </strong>This pilot study examines the potential utility of the Perception of Interprofessional Collaboration Model and the Shared Decision Making scales in evaluating the quality of partnership in child mental health collaborative care. </p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>96 primary care professionals working with children and youth responded to an internet survey which included the Perception of Interprofessional Collaboration Model scale (PINCOM-Q) and an adapted version of a Shared Decision Making scale (Échelle de confort décisionnel, partenaire - ECD-P). The perceptions of child mental health professionals were compared with those of other professionals working with children. </p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The PINCOM- Q and the ECD-P scales had an excellent internal consistency and they were moderately correlated. Child mental health professionals' Individual Interprofessional Collaboration scores from the PINCOM-Q Individual aspects subscale were better than that of other child professionals.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These scales may be interesting instruments to measure the quality of partnership in child mental health collaborative care settings. Research needs to replicate these findings and to determine whether the quality of collaboration is a predictor of mental health outcome.<strong></strong></p

Children's representations of war trauma and family separation in play

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a non-intrusive research instrument for children who have experienced war trauma and family separation that has the capacity to elicit verbal and non-verbal representations of their experiences in their play. A related objective was to explore the relationship between the family's disclosure of traumatic events and the children's play. The research was conducted among 21 Algerian and West and Central African children. The methodology was based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. The play of children from a community and a clinical group was compared to identify play indicators that were potentially indicative of positive mental health.Results suggest that indicators of play structure may be more important than indicators of play content in identifying children with potential mental health difficulties as a result of trauma. In particular, a flexible approach to trauma and a modulated approach to the disclosure of traumatic events may be related to positive mental health.These results suggest that this non-intrusive directed play interview is a valid and culturally sensitive instrument for assessing the verbal and non-verbal representations of war trauma in refugee children

Remaking family life: strategies for re-establishing continuity among Congolese refugees during the family reunification process

The restrictive immigration and refugee policies of many Western countries force most refugee families to remain separated for long periods. Although there is much discussion among professionals in the community and the clinical milieu about the problems families encounter after reunification, the strategies employed by refugees to restore family life have not been paid much attention. This longitudinal study documents the pre- and post-reunification experiences of 12 refugee families from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Montreal. Our results suggest that family separation can be understood as an ambiguous loss, in that the temporary absence of other family members cannot be fully acknowledged because of the perpetual uncertainty and permanent risk to them. Memory work, in the form of shared family memories, attenuates the pain of the absence. Once reunited, family members must re-establish continuity in spite of the many denied rifts between them. The capacity to recall a personal, familial or collective history of previous separation and loss appears to be protective, as if the memory of life's discontinuities provides an opportunity to recreate a partial sense of continuity out of repeating experiences of chaos.Refugees Separation Reunification Families Democratic Republic of Congo

La santé mentale jeunesse : un domaine à la croisée des chemins

Si l’importance grandissante de la santé mentale des jeunes fait consensus, de multiples questionnements émergent cependant quant aux spécificités de ce domaine, qui ne peut être conçu comme une extension des services adultes pour des groupes plus jeunes. Cet article aborde ces questionnements en croisant les savoirs provenant de la documentation et ceux qui émergent à la suite de l’implantation du Plan d’action en santé mentale au Québec.Le Plan d’action en santé mentale a mis de l’avant la collaboration et le partenariat entre institutions et disciplines. Malgré des avancées significatives, des discontinuités peu favorables à une prise en charge écosystémique persistent. Un ensemble de recherches récentes suggère que les contextes organisationnels qui encadrent les services influencent à la fois la façon dont les interventions sont mises en place et leurs résultats cliniques. Une structure de gestion flexible qui engage les intervenants en favorisant une appropriation du pouvoir, tout en minimisant les sources de stress au travail et en facilitant la création de partenariats, semble nécessaire pour favoriser la concertation interdisciplinaire et intersectorielle. Celle-ci est essentielle à la mise en place de services en santé mentale jeunesse.The importance of children and youth mental health is increasingly recognized. This rapidly developing field cannot be conceptualized as an extension of adult services to a younger age group and its developmental and organizational specificities are the object of debate. Reviewing recent literature in this domain and some preliminary information about the Quebec Mental Health Plan implementation, this paper addresses some of the questions which structure this debate in Quebec.Quebec mental health plan has put at the forefront collaboration among disciplines and partnership among institutions. In spite of having produced significant improvement in the field, discontinuities in services, which interfere with an ecosystemic model of care, persist. Recent studies suggest that the organisational climate which surrounds youth mental health services has a direct impact on the quality of services and on youth health outcomes. A flexible management structure, which engages clinicians and health workers, favors empowerment, minimizes work stress and facilitates partnership, is needed to foster successful interdisciplinary and intersectorial collaboration. This collaboration is the cornerstone of youth mental health services

Strategies used by Black Caribbean youth to achieve success

Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 16 sept. 2009)