Addressing Patients’ Mental Health Needs at a Student-Run Free Clinic

Knoll, Olivia; Chakravarthy, Rohini; Cockroft, Joshua D.; Baddour, Nicolas; Jordan, Shannon; Weaver, Eleanor; Fowler, Michael J.; Miller, Robert F.

doi:10.1007/s10597-020-00634-3

Original Paper
Published: 21 May 2020

Addressing Patients’ Mental Health Needs at a Student-Run Free Clinic

Olivia Knoll¹,
Rohini Chakravarthy ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9640-8200²,
Joshua D. Cockroft²,
Nicolas Baddour²,
Shannon Jordan³,
Eleanor Weaver⁴,
Michael J. Fowler⁴ &
Robert F. Miller⁴

Community Mental Health Journal volume 57, pages 196–202 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Student-run free clinics are uniquely positioned to understand the barriers to accessing mental health resources. We abstracted patient demographics and clinical characteristics from 355 patient charts and examined referral patterns for a subset of patients. Seventy-three (21%) of patients were found to have a psychiatric diagnosis and were more likely to have more medical comorbidities (10 versus 6, p < 0.001), total medications (8 versus 6, p < 0.001, and to be English-speaking (odds ratio: 1.97, p < 0.05). Of patients who received a referral, 37 (60%) were referred to specialty treatment, the majority to a single outside agency provider. 15 (25%) of patients were interviewed. Barriers to successful referral included transportation and medical symptoms. A facilitator of successful referral was concern for individual’s health. Language, social stigma, and cost were not cited as barriers. This study describes mental health needs at a SRFC and suggests opportunities for improvement.

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Acknowledgements

Faculty time dedicated to this initiative was supported by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and The Shade Tree Clinic. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Bonnie Miller and Dr. Jeffery Balser for their support of the Shade Tree Clinic and to Thao Le and Daniel Sack for their critical review of this manuscript. The clinical operations of Shade Tree Clinic were supported by the Baptist Healing Trust. Thank you to the student and physician volunteers for dedicating their time and effort to the clinic. Thank you to the patients of Shade Tree Clinic without whom this work would not be possible.

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Affiliations

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Olivia Knoll
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA
Rohini Chakravarthy, Joshua D. Cockroft & Nicolas Baddour
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Shannon Jordan
Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Eleanor Weaver, Michael J. Fowler & Robert F. Miller

Authors

Olivia Knoll
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Rohini Chakravarthy
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Joshua D. Cockroft
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Nicolas Baddour
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Shannon Jordan
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Eleanor Weaver
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Michael J. Fowler
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Robert F. Miller
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Correspondence to Rohini Chakravarthy.

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Knoll, O., Chakravarthy, R., Cockroft, J.D. et al. Addressing Patients’ Mental Health Needs at a Student-Run Free Clinic. Community Ment Health J 57, 196–202 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00634-3

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Received: 02 July 2019
Accepted: 13 May 2020
Published: 21 May 2020
Issue Date: January 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00634-3

Keywords

Student-run free clinic
Mental health
Referral
Primary care
Vulnerable populations
Medical education