Improving Mental Health Outcomes in Adolescent Patients With Universal Anxiety Screening in an Outpatient Pediatric Primary Care Office: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

In the wake of the cultural and mental health consequences that arose since the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care providers must be able to assess and initiate treatment of anxiety disorders in the pediatric population. Only 59% of children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are identified and receive treatment. This quality improvement project aimed to evaluate the implementation of universal anxiety screening using the General Anxiety Disorder-7 tool in pediatric primary care. Screening was performed on adolescents (aged 12-18 years) to evaluate the frequency and acceptability of tool administration and identification of anxiety and referrals to mental health care for treatment. Employing a pretest-posttest design, the effect of universal anxiety screening for adolescents was measured at well-child visits. Anxiety screening and anxiety diagnosis rates were significantly increased post-implementation. Universal screening for anxiety was efficacious in the project setting for identifying cases of anxiety.