ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2021
Proactive detection of people in need of mental healthcare: accuracy of the community case detection tool among children, adolescents and families in Sri Lanka.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A community case detection tool to promote help-seeking for mental health care among children and adolescents in Ugandan refugee settlements: a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial.The Lancet. Child & adolescent health · 2024Trial
- A family-systemic intervention for mental health with refugees in Jordan: Protocol of a randomised controlled trial of StrongerTogether.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Data-driven supervision to optimize the effectiveness of proactive case detection for mental health care among children: a proof-of-concept study.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundMost children and adolescents in need of mental healthcare remain untreated even when services are available. This study evaluates the accuracy of a new tool, the Community Case Detection Tool (CCDT). The CCDT uses illustrated vignettes, two questions and a simple decision algorithm to support proactive community-level detection of children, adolescents and families in need of mental healthcare to improve help-seeking.
methodsTrusted and respected community members in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka used the CCDT in their daily routine. Children and families detected as potentially in need of mental healthcare based on utilizing the CCDT (N = 157, aged 6-18 years) were invited for a clinical interview by a mental health counsellor using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID). The CCDT results were compared against the results of the clinical interview. The concurrent validity and performance of the CCDT were also evaluated by comparing the CCDT outcomes against the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
results7 out of 10 children and families detected by community members using the CCDT were confirmed to be in need for treatment (positive predictive value [PPV] = 0.69; 0.75 when compared to the SDQ). Detections based on the family problem vignette were most accurate (PPV = 0.76), followed by the internalising problem vignette (PPV = 0.71) and the externalising problem vignette (PPV = 0.62).
conclusionsThe CCDT is a promising low-cost solution to overcome under-detection of children and families in need of mental healthcare. Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness, as well as additional strategies to improve help-seeking.
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