Virtual Patient Navigation During a Pandemic

Overview

The sub-study will involve a rigorous mixed-methods design. The qualitative phase of the sub-study will consist of semi-structured interviews. During the semi-structured interviews, 10 eligible women will be recruited to identify barriers and facilitators to accessing virtual mental health services. This information will be used to adapt an evidence-based patient navigation intervention for virtual use. For the intervention phase of the sub-study, 30 women with persistent postpartum depression symptoms will be recruited to participate in the adapted virtual navigator program using rapid cycle testing over a 2-month period.

In the qualitative phase of the sub-study, 10 participants who are either former participants from the R61 Phase (IRB 19-016174) of the Main Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT), or have been referred, are actively enrolled, or withdrawn in the R33 Phase (IRB 22-019784) of the Main RCT, will be recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. In the intervention phase of the sub-study, 30 eligible women who are either former participants from the R61 Phase (IRB 19-016174) of the Main RCT, or have been referred, enrolled but completed participation, or withdrawn from the R33 Phase (IRB 22-019784) of the Main RCT, but not actively engaged with mental health services, will be enrolled and consented to receive virtual patient navigation for 2 months. The qualitative phase will involve audio-recorded semi-structured interviews to identify barriers and facilitators to virtual and in-person mental health services. These interviews will then inform the intervention phase which involves the adaptation of an existing mental health navigation intervention for a virtual environment. For both phases of the sub-study, those who agree to participate will be asked to verbally agree to the approved HIPAA form and sign the informed consent form. For the qualitative phase of the sub-study, 10 eligible women will participate in a 30-40 minute semi-structured interview. Following written informed consent, the participating mother will then participate in a 30-40 minute semi-structured interview. The interview will consist of questions regarding barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health services during a pandemic. The interviews will be audiotaped and transcribed. In the event that the interview cannot be completed in person, a research staff member will complete the interview over the phone with the participant. Transcripts of interviews will be reviewed by 2-3 investigators. Transcripts will be coded and emergent themes related to barriers and facilitators to virtual navigation will be identified using inductive means. Initial codes will be developed inductively through consensus of the investigative team. Themes pertaining to child and family factors and benefits and barriers to mental health service use in a virtual environment will be identified. Investigators will use NVivo, a qualitative software program, to facilitate coding of transcripts and identification of themes. This information will be used to adapt an evidence-based patient navigation intervention for virtual use. For the intervention phase of the sub-study, 30 women with persistent postpartum depression symptoms will be recruited to participate in the adapted virtual navigator program using rapid cycle testing over a 2-month period. These women will be enrolled and consented to receive virtual patient navigation for 2 months. Investigators will conduct rapid cycle testing in which the investigators will evaluate satisfaction, feasibility, and target engagement of the intervention after every 10 participants in order to make rapid cycle changes prior to enrolling the next 10 participants. Women will communicate virtually with the patient navigator by means of telephone, text messaging, Facetime, or other virtual modality of their choice. The patient navigator will meet with families at the beginning of the study to review results of depression screens and community mental health resources. The patient navigator will partner with participants, engage them in the program, and provide ongoing communication with participants and mental health clinicians. The patient navigator will contact participants weekly by phone, text messaging, email, or any other modality depending on participant preference to monitor initiation and completion of referral, identify concerns and/or barriers to referral completion, and assist participants with problem-solving to identify potential barriers and solutions to complete mental health referrals. Specific barriers and proposed solutions will be identified in the qualitative study above. Using virtual means, the patient navigator will also communicate with mental health clinicians to clarify appointments and address emerging issues. A fidelity checklist will be adapted to assess self-reported task completion by the patient navigator. All participants will be monitored monthly for depressive symptoms and suicidality. Those who report worsening depressive symptoms (EPDS\>20) or suicidality (affirmative response to Question #10 on the EPDS) will be contacted immediately by study staff and an existing suicide protocol from the parent study will be initiated.