Nursing Interventions on Adolescent and Childhood Depression in Primary Care

Depression among children and adolescents is a global health concern with various optional of consequences influencing one’s entire life and costing economic burden of caring for the society. Additionally, depression is found to be the leading cause of suicidality of this age group. Due to the shortage of care resource in primary care and increasing prevalence of depression, the importance of primary care has been increased. The aim of the study was to synthesis available research in interventions for childhood and adolescent depression that are suitable for primary care setting. A literature review was chosen as a research method for this study. Two databases, Cinahl Plus full-text and Medline, were utilized to collect the data. Overall, seven articles were selected, and data analysis was done in an inductive way. As a result, two main categories of interventions, which were detection and management, were identified through the analysis. The review indicated that identifying the need for mental health care through routine screening, assessing a patient in a wholistic manner, managing a care plan with other professionals and educational approaches could be implemented by nurses in primary care.

Keywords:

Adolescent , Childhood , Depression , Nursing , primary care