A model psychosocial screening program for children and youth with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes: Implications for psychologists across contexts of care.

Psychosocial factors are strongly associated with long-term medical and mental health outcomes for children with Type 1 diabetes. As a result, current national and international guidelines now call for psychosocial screening at or near the time of diabetes diagnosis. Despite this recommendation, there are no published protocols to provide guidance to psychologists attempting to screen and identify at-risk patients and their families and prevent the emergence of secondary psychological and medical complications. In this article, the authors describe a model psychosocial screening program that was designed to minimize barriers to implementation and that can potentially be adapted for use by psychologists in different settings. Preliminary findings from the pilot phase of program development suggest that the screening is effective at identifying patients at risk for subsequent problems with diabetes management. The screening was able to identify specific, modifiable risk factors that provide targets for efforts at preventive intervention using treatment approaches familiar to most psychologists. The authors conclude with a discussion of the importance of screening and knowledge of diabetes risk factors for psychologists working in different treatment settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)