School psychologists' perceptions of primary care partnerships: Implications for building the collaborative bridge

Abstract

There is a critical need to increase communication and collaboration across the educational and medical systems on behalf of students with paediatric health issues.The purpose of the current study was to investigate school psychologists' perceptions of their communication and collaboration practices with paediatric professionals (e.g. paediatricians). Three hundred and forty school psychologists completed a survey that assessed their communication and collaboration practices with paediatric professionals, professional development in paediatric health issues and use of e-Health technology on behalf of students with medical problems. School psychologists reported communicating with paediatric professionals a few times per year (60.6%), collaborating a few times per year (34%) and receiving between one and five hours of professional development on paediatric health issues per year (50.8%). Only a small number of school psychologists used e-Health. Of those respondents, all indicated that it was beneficial to some extent to their practice. The major finding of this study was that interdisciplinary communication and collaboration practices were relatively infrequent. Results from this study can help inform strategies for increased collaboration, pre-service and ongoing training, and future research.

School mental health professionals’ training, comfort, and attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration with pediatric primary care providers

“…This study, however, extends previous research by examining attitudes toward IPC directly using a psychometrically sound, frequently used measure of IPC attitudes, as well as parsing this construct by examining different aspects of attitudes toward IPC. Additionally, results of this study are consistent with previous studies that noted infrequent IPC by PCPs (Bradley-Klug et al, 2010) and SMH professionals (namely, school psychologists; Bradley-Klug et al, 2013), underscoring the importance of attending to this area in SMH professionals.…”

“…In one of the few studies on the topic, Bradley-Klug et al (2013) investigated school psychologists' perceptions of their partnerships with PCPs. Using survey methodology, results revealed the relative infrequency of collaborative practices and interdisciplinary communication among these professionals .…”

“…As no single document outlining such competencies was found, items were developed based on a number of sources, including SAMSHA's 'Core Competencies for Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care' (Hoge, Morris, Laraia, Pomerantz, & Farley, 2014), which outlines competencies for the behavioral health and primary care professional in a number of domains, as well as other relevant training literature (e.g. Bradley-Klug et al, 2013). As the SMH professional was noted to already work within an interprofessional setting, only domains from these publications particularly relevant to the IPC with PCPs were chosen.…”

School psychologists’ interprofessional collaboration with medical providers: An initial examination of training, preparedness, and current practices

“…To better serve students with chronic health conditions, it is important that school psychologists are able to promote development and wellness through the implementation of evidence‐based prevention and intervention strategies (Bradley‐Klug et al, ). Interprofessional collaboration (IPC), or teamwork with individuals from various professions (Mu & Brasic Royeen, ), is an important aspect of such activities for youth with chronic health and other medical conditions (Bradley‐Klug, Grier, Ax, Bear, & Minke, ).…”

“…This study has found that only limited IPC occurs between these providers (Bradley‐Klug, Sundman, Nadeau, Cunningham, & Ogg, ). In a complementary study, results indicated that the majority of school psychologists reported communicating with pediatricians only a few times yearly (Bradley‐Klug et al, ). Similarly, a study of school mental health (SMH) professionals, providers that include school social workers, school counselors, school nurses, as well as school psychologists, found limited IPC with primary care providers (PCPs; Arora, Connors, Biscardi, & Hill, ).…”