Automated Assessement of Mental Health in the Work Place

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this proposal is the development and initial evaluation of a confidential workplace program that uses computer telephony to communicate with workers, to evaluate whether they have a mental health disorder which could impact their workplace performance and that refers untreated and inadequately treated workers to alternate treatment settings. We propose to develop and conduct a randomized evaluation of Telephone-Linked Communications for Detection of Mental Health Disorders in the Workplace (TLC-Detect). TLC-Detect will: a) assess an employee's mental health for a group of relevant mental health disorders by administering the PRIME-MD (Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders) Patient Questionnaire, 2) provide recommendations for referral and other treatment options for employees who have a mental health disorder, 3) educate and motivate employees to engage in treatment, 4) implement automated periodic follow-ups to monitor mental health symptom severity and treatment maintenance, 5) educate and motivate the employees to remain in treatment. The specific goals of this study are: to design and develop TLC-Detect that consists of a mental health Diagnostic Module that (a) will detect common mental health disorders that affect workplace productivity, (b) Symptom Severity Module that assesses the symptom severity for each identified mental health condition, (c) a Treatment Module that assesses the willingness of the employee who has a mental health condition to engage in treatment and educates and counsels that person to engage in treatment, (d) a Follow-up Treatment Module that will monitor the person's treatment maintenance. In the randomized clinical trial, the following hypotheses will be tested: 1) The TLC-Detect group will have less absenteeism and presenteeism compared to the control group measured in hours/days lost [e.g., absenteeism time and presenteeism time].2) A larger proportion of the TLC-Detect group will be in mental health treatment than the control group. 3) There will be a greater improvement in symptom severity in the TLC-Detect group than in the control group. 4) The TLC-Detect will be acceptable and considered useful by the employee participants.