Seasonality and school day-based trends in mental-health-related pediatric emergency department visits during COVID-19 in British Columbia.

Objectives: The association between mental health related pediatric emergency department (ED) visits and school attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear. We aimed to determine the change in rate of mental health-related pediatric ED visits related to type of school day (i.e.

Pesticide presence in stream water, suspended sediment and biofilm is strongly linked to upstream catchment land use and crop type.

Pesticide pollution can present high ecological risks to aquatic ecosystems. Small streams are particularly susceptible. There is a need for reproducible and readily available methods to identify aquatic regions at risk of pesticide contamination.

Commentary: School closures, the pandemic, and pediatric mental health: Scrutinizing the evidence.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived with significant hardship. The secondary impacts of the pandemic and our response with respect to pediatric mental health has been a subject of significant discussion in the lay public, media, and decision-maker groups. The initiatives to control SARS-CoV-2 have become politicized.

Evaluating the psychosocial status of BC children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A MyHEARTSMAP cross-sectional study.

Background: Understanding the psychosocial status of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital to the appropriate and adequate allocation of social supports and mental health resources. This study evaluates the burden of mental health concerns and the impact of demographic factors while tracking mental health service recommendations to inform community service needs.

Methods: MyHEARTSMAP is a digital self-assessment mental health evaluation completed by children and their guardian throughout British Columbia between August 2020 to July 2021.

Youth mental health-related presentations at a quaternary centre: Who comes, What are their needs, and Can we meet their needs.

Background: Mental health issues are increasingly prevalent across Canada, reflected in rising presentations to emergency departments. To effectively address the needs of children and youth seeking mental health-related care in the emergency department and to judiciously use scarce mental health-related resources, we need to better identify the specific areas of psychosocial needs and accessibility of associated services.

Objective: To describe the types and severity of paediatric mental health-related presentations evaluated at a quaternary paediatric emergency department, and to explore the accessibility of community mental health-related resources.

Simulating diluted bitumen spills in boreal lake limnocorrals - Part 1: Experimental design and responses of hydrocarbons, metals, and water quality parameters.

Large-scale, in-lake enclosures (limnocorrals) were used to simulate spills of diluted bitumen (dilbit) in a boreal lake. In this study we use these simulated spills, which covered a range of sizes (oil:water ratio) representative of the upper 25% of onshore crude oil spills in North America (2008-2019), to assess the fate of dilbit-derived hydrocarbons and metals as well as the impacts of the spills on standard water quality parameters. The systems were monitored over 70 days following the application of dilbit amounts ranging between 1.

Using zooplankton metabarcoding to assess the efficacy of different techniques to clean-up an oil-spill in a boreal lake.

Regulators require adequate information to select best practices with less ecosystem impacts for remediation of freshwater ecosystems after oil spills. Zooplankton are valuable indicators of aquatic ecosystem health as they play pivotal roles in biochemical cycles while stabilizing food webs. Compared with morphological identification, metabarcoding holds promise for cost-effective, high-throughput, and benchmarkable biomonitoring of zooplankton communities.

Utility of MyHEARTSMAP in Youth Presenting to the Emergency Department with Mental Health Concerns.

Objectives: To evaluate the utility of a digital psychological self-assessment tool, MyHEARTSMAP (scores on 10 sections: home, education and activities, alcohol and drugs, relationships and bullying, thoughts and anxiety, safety, sexual health, mood, abuse, and professional resources), in youth presenting to the pediatric emergency department (ED) with a mental health concern.

Study Design: We conducted a prospective cohort study in 2 tertiary care pediatric EDs from December 2017 to October 2019. Youth 10-17 years old triaged for a mental health concern were screened and enrolled to complete MyHEARTSMAP on a mobile device.

Surface-Dwelling Aquatic Insects in Low-Energy Freshwater Environments Are Highly Impacted by Oil Spills and the Surface Washing Agent Corexit EC9580A Used in Oil Spill Response.

Physical impacts of diluted bitumen (dilbit) and the application of surface washing agents (SWAs) in freshwater have not been characterized for aquatic invertebrates. These compounds are known to reduce surface tension in feather and fur microstructures of birds and mammals, and are thus likely to affect the buoyancy of surface-dwelling aquatic insects. We evaluated impacts of fresh dilbit and a SWA on water striders (Metrobates sp.

Utility of MyHEARTSMAP for Universal Psychosocial Screening in the Emergency Department.

Objectives: To evaluate the utility of universal psychosocial screening in the emergency department (ED) using MyHEARTSMAP, a digital self-assessment and management guiding tool.

Study Design: We conducted a cohort study of youth 10-17 years of age with nonmental health related presentations at 2 pediatric EDs. On randomly selected shifts (December 2017-February 2019), participants completed their psychosocial self-assessments using MyHEARTSMAP on a mobile device, then underwent a standardized clinical mental health assessment (criterion standard).

Provincial dissemination of HEARTSMAP, an emergency department psychosocial assessment and disposition decision tool for children and youth.

Background: This article describes the provincial dissemination of HEARTSMAP, an evidence-based emergency department (ED) psychosocial assessment and disposition decision tool for clinician use with children and youth.

Methods: HEARTSMAP was disseminated in partnership with local, child and youth mental health teams, as part of a quality improvement initiative implemented in British Columbia EDs. The target audience of education sessions were clinicians working in ED settings responsible for paediatric psychosocial assessments.

MyHEARTSMAP: development and evaluation of a psychosocial self-assessment tool, for and by youth.

Background: Paediatric mental health-related visits to the emergency department are rising. However, few tools exist to identify concerns early and connect youth with appropriate mental healthcare. Our objective was to develop a digital youth psychosocial assessment and management tool (MyHEARTSMAP) and evaluate its inter-rater reliability when self-administered by a community-based sample of youth and parents.

Reliability of HEARTSMAP as a Tool for Evaluating Psychosocial Assessment Documentation Practices in Emergency Departments for Pediatric Mental Health Complaints.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to assess the reliability of HEARTSMAP as a standardized tool for evaluating the quality of psychosocial assessment documentation of pediatric mental health (MH) presentations to the emergency department (ED). In addition, we report on current documentation practices.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of pediatric (up to age 17) MH-related visits to four EDs between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

A psychosocial assessment and management tool for children and youth in crisis.

Objectives: To evaluate the psychometric properties of HEARTSMAP, an emergency psychosocial assessment and management tool, and its impact on patient care and flow measures.

Methods: We conducted the study in two phases: first validating the tool using extracted information from a retrospective cohort, then evaluating implementation on a prospective cohort of youth presenting with mental health complaints to a tertiary Pediatric Emergency Department (PED). In phase 1, six PED clinicians applied HEARTSMAP to extracted narratives and we calculated inter-rater agreement for referral recommendations using Cohen’s Kappa and the sensitivity and specificity for identifying youth requiring psychiatric consultation and hospitalization.

Trends in Pediatric Emergency Department Utilization for Mental Health-Related Visits.

Objective: To describe trends in utilization of pediatric emergency department (PED) resources by patients with mental health concerns over the past 11 [corrected] years at a tertiary care hospital.

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of tertiary PED visits from 2002 [corrected] to 2012. All visits with chief complaint or discharge diagnosis related to mental health were included.

Therapeutic drug levels of second generation antipsychotics in youth: a systematic review.

Objective: In children and adolescents, the prevalence rate of mental illness is claimed to be as high as 10-20%. Effective pharmacological treatments are available for use in children, adolescents, and adults; however, most of what is known about the effects of these treatments has been confirmed in clinical studies involving adults only. Second generation antipsychotic drugs (SGAs) are the most common class of antipsychotic medication used in pediatric populations, and these drugs are increasingly being used for disorders other than psychosis.