Mental health providers should provide care that aims to prevent diseases. The screening and monitoring for Metabolic Syndrome(MS) among adolescents patients on Second-Generation(SGAs) will prevent complications associated with the condition and promote patients’ health. Incorporating the screening tool into the patient electronic health record can increase the screening rates for MS in patients on SGA. However, educating mental health providers of the need and urgency of monitoring for MS on patients on SGA will prevent complications associated wit
h their use and improve patient outcomes. Due to the side effects of SGA use, monitoring for MS is critical in any healthcare setting. Adding the screening and monitoring tool to the patient electronic health record is recommended if the rates of screening and monitoring for MS will improve. In addition, the mental health facility should explore the option of including automatic reminders of monitoring for MS. The reminders will prompt the clinician when the annual labs are due and enable them to adhere to the recommended guidelines.
Follow-up calls to patients by case managers to remind them of the importance and need of getting the blood work done can also improve the screening rate. In addition, integrating laboratory services within the mental health care services can be convenient to the patients and thus improve compliance of getting the lab work done. Lastly, integration of primary care services in the same building with mental health services can foster compliance for monitoring for MS and facilitate close follow-up of patients identified at risk by healthcare providers. Failure to screen patients before putting them on medication leads to the omission of a critical component in screening and monitoring for MS among the adolescent population. This omission leads to a lack of early identification of those at high risk for MS(Wakefield et al., 2018). The chosen project highlights the substantial gap in adherence to screening for MS. The gap displays the laxity among health care providers in screening and monitoring for MS, despite its prevalence. This DNP scholar recommends a screening and monitoring tool that can improve screening and monitoring of MS among the adolescent population. After implementing the screening tool, the screening compliance improved, emphasizing the intervention involved. Many adolescent patients prescribed with SGA are not routinely screened for MS following the best practice recommendations. The screening rates in the pre-intervention period highlight the laxity in screening and monitoring for MS among these patients. Therefore, it is safe to say that the screening and monitoring tool can increase screening rates for MS. This project has highlighted the importance of proper screening and monitoring for MS among adolescent patients for early management and referral. After reviewing the gap in practice with the stakeholders, I will use email, phone calls, reminders to help with their sensibilization(Lee et al., 2020).
References
Lee J,Dalack GW, Casher MI, Eappen SA, Bostwick JR.(2020).Persistence of metabolic monitoring for psychiatry inpatients treated with second-generation antipsychotics utilizing a computer-based intervention.
Wakefield S, Aligeti M, Rachamallu V, Baronia R, Aynampudi R, Parmar A, Peterson P, Masodkar K(2018). Metabolic Monitoring of Child and Adolesc