Improving Access to Mental Health Care for Pediatric and Adolescent Patients
Utilizing an Anonymous Texting Service
Julie Kathman
University of Southern Indiana
A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice from the College of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of Southern Indiana Evansville, Indiana
December 2016
A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice from the College of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of Southern Indiana Evansville, Indiana
This project was prepared under the direction of the faculty mentor and practice partner. It is accepted by the faculty mentor, practice partner, and director of the program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice at the University of Southern Indiana.
Copyright © by Julie Kathman All rights reserved
Executive Summary
Problem: Children under the age of 18 in the state of Indiana received needed mental health care at a rate lower than the national average. Since rates of those with insurance coverage in Indiana are comparable to the national average, this issue is related more to factors such as lack of providers, knowledge of availability of providers, perceived need for services, and stigma related to receiving mental health services. Some communities have implemented anonymous mental health texting services to mitigate these barriers to care. Improving access to care through an anonymous mental health texting service can help decrease the number of children who need services yet don’t receive them.
Purpose: The purpose of this capstone project was to improve access to mental health care by identifying an anonymous mental health texting service and develop a plan to implement the service.
Project Objectives: The objectives of this capstone project were (a) to analyze data from existing communities that utilize an anonymous mental health texting service, (b) plan for implementation of a mental health texting service in a rural Midwest community, and (c) improve access to appropriate, amenable mental health care for those children in need of services.
Plan/Scope of Project: Existing data was analyzed using a mixed method design and, based on the findings, implementation of an anonymous mental health texting service was recommended.
Results: Of the 1515 text messages, 21.7% (n = 330) were related to bullying, 2.7% (n = 41) were related to self-harm, and 3.6% (n = 54) were related to suicide. Only 31 bullying messages were requests for help, while the majority were test messages sent to ascertain if a person would respond. 68% of conversations about bullying had resolution. All text messages about self-harm and suicide were requests for help and all had some form of resolution.
Recommendations: Implementation of a crisis texting service has the potential to provide additional access to mental health support by using an acceptable method of communication. Utilizing a texting service based in the community has great potential to improve timeliness of resolution to crisis and connections to resources.
