Since the late 1980's there has been a sharp rise in the number of children and adolescents presenting to emergency departments (EDs) for psychiatric issues. Given that mental health issues account for 1.6% - 5.0% of all pediatric ED visits, and that Emergency Medical System's (EMS) staffs are the first to interact with these youth, the assessment of psychiatric issues in young patients should be a high priority for programs educating EMS staff. However, based on a survey of the current emergency medicine residency programs there is little (28%) or no (67%) training in psychiatric issues. Therefore, the primary goal of this STTR is to develop a web-based continuing medical education program for emergency department physicians on the assessment of dangerousness (i.e., suicidality) among child and adolescent patient populations. Phase I of the project will achieve the following specific aims: (1) determine the specific content area of training modules; (2) develop the first one-hour module; (3) create 15 minutes of module two, in order to demonstrate the interactive and innovative features of the training program (e.g., mock clinical interviews and case conceptualizations); and (4) evaluate the module for ease of use, accessibility, relevance and acceptability. Phase II of the project will develop the remaining modules, continue their evaluation, market the training program locally to emergency department physicians and modify the program for use with more widespread populations: (e.g., Emergency Medical Services providers, nurses, and pediatricians).
