Defining Episodes of Care in Children's Mental Health Using Administrative Data.
Criteria to define an episode of care in children's mental health services are needed. Various criteria were applied to 5 years of visit data from children 4-11 years (N = 5,206) at their first visit to 1 of 3 children's mental health agencies. A minimum of 3 visits with 180 days between episodes optimized agreement with other dates (e.g., telephone intake assessment) marking the start and end of an episode, and clinician-rated number of episodes. Grouping visits into episodes provides a clearer representation of how services are distributed over extended periods of time, facilitating research and enhancing accuracy in service planning.
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. greid@uwo.ca.|Department of Family Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. greid@uwo.ca.|Department of Paediatrics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. greid@uwo.ca.|Children's Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada. greid@uwo.ca.|Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada. greid@uwo.ca.
Graham
G
Reid
Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.|Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Shannon L
SL
Stewart
Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Gregory S
GS
Zaric
Vanier Children's Services, London, ON, Canada.
Jeffrey R
JR
Carter
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.|Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.|Neuroscience Program, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Richard W J
RW
Neufeld
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.|St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Juliana I
JI
Tobon
Community Health Systems Research Group, Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.|Department of Psychiatry and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Melanie
M
Barwick
Department of Family Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.|Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Evelyn R
ER
Vingilis
D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D017050:Episode of Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D008605:Mental Health Services; D014600:Utilization Review
Access/demand/utilization of services; Child and adolescent health; Health care organizations and systems; Managed care techniques; Mental health; Utilization review