An Ottawa children’s hospital is offering a creative solution to the lack of in-person care amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic by launching a drive-up vitals clinic for young mental health patients.
The clinic’s model is unique to CHEO and aims to adhere to strict physical distancing guidelines while offering an essential form of mental health care that cannot be done virtually, said Dr. Marjorie Robb, the hospital’s associate chief of psychiatry.
“What can’t be done virtually is the hands-on piece,” Robb said.
Many children accessing mental health care at CHEO need their vitals monitored, Robb explained, meaning they need to get their height, weight, blood pressure and breathing rate checked. This is due to the natural, rapid growth of children and youth, but also for possible medication side-effects that must be monitored.
“Medications require monitoring for various reasons,” Robb said. “Are you losing weight because the medication is interfering with your weight? Are you gaining weight? Are there any side-effects of the medication affecting you physically?”
Before the pandemic, vitals monitoring and other outpatient mental health services were offered through CHEO in person. But Robb said children’s vitals haven’t been checked in months because of COVID-19 and strict physical-distancing measures that moved much of the country’s mental health care online.
Since the middle of March, Robb said CHEO’s outpatient mental health clinic has been almost completely empty, with 94 per cent of its outpatient mental health visits now being done virtually.
“The space is basically sitting there unused,” she said.
To ensure doctors and nurses can still monitor these patients, CHEO began using the space two weeks ago for their drive-up Mental Health Vitals Clinic. It was inspired by CHEO’s diabetes care team, which launched a drive-thru diabetes clinic earlier to monitor kids’ vitals.
Robb said the hospital would have offered mental health vitals services sooner, but it only began working on it a few months ago after realizing COVID-19 was here to stay.
“In the beginning, we were all kind of optimistic that this wouldn’t last a super long time,” Robb said. “But of course, it didn’t work out that way.”
The drive-up clinic operates by appointment only for children and youth referred by CHEO’s mental health team. Patients and their parents or guardian are able to wait in the car and call the clinic’s clerk from their phones to notify them of their arrival. Patients are allowed to go in once the private room and common areas are cleaned.
A separate waiting room is reserved for anyone arriving by transit, Robb said, increasing access beyond only patients who have access to a car.
Most vitals can be monitored through the clinic with the exception of blood tests, but Robb said she hopes blood work will soon be part of the services offered.
While the drive-up clinic is a positive step in increasing access to essential mental health care for CHEO’s patients, Robb said it’s become more difficult to access care in other ways.
For example, the wait time for an appointment at the hospital’s outpatient mental health clinic through outside referrals has significantly increased since the pandemic began. Robb said wait times are “at least four months, and probably a bit more.”
Children who are at a higher risk and first access care through the emergency department are seen quicker, Robb added, but demand is still outgrowing the existing mental health resources at the hospital.
This rising demand follows high anxiety and depression levels among youth as a result of COVID-19.
Research out of the University of Alberta shows that 96 per cent of people under 25 said they’ve experienced moderate or high levels of stress because of the pandemic, and studies and polls conducted by clinicians in Ontario between April and June reveal that two-thirds of young people aged 12 to 25 said their mental health had gotten worse since the pandemic.