Screening for Family Psychosocial Risk in Pediatric Healthcare Settings | Patient Centered Care and Trauma Informed Care for Pediatric Patients

Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress

How can healthcare professionals identify psychosocial risk of children (and their family) who have been diagnosed with an illness? One evidence-based approach: Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT).

The Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT) is a brief (5-10 minutes) parent report screener that allows you to identify your patient’s family’s areas of risk and resiliency across multiple domains of psychosocial risk (e.g., family resources, social support, child behaviors, sibling behaviors, caregiver problems, caregiver traumatic stress, and family beliefs). The PAT has also been adapted for use in other pediatric conditions and settings (e.g. NICU, bone marrow transplantation, chronic pain, obesity, congenital heart disease and CICU, diabetes) with published reports in sickle cell disease, kidney transplantation, and irritable bowel disease.

Currently the PAT is being used in over 50 pediatric healthcare settings across the country and 15 international sites. Any number of healthcare professionals with a variety of expertise and experience from your site can administer the PAT (e.g., social workers, nurses, psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists, patient care technicians). The PAT is aimed at helping you in making informed decisions around a family-centered and trauma-informed assessment and intervention using a tri-level determination of risk (based off the Pediatric Psychosocial Preventative Health Model). You can administer the PAT in various formats: 1) as a web-based measure, 2) as a paper and pencil measure, or 3) for research use in REDCap.

For more information, visit the PAT website at psychosocialassessmenttool.org.

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