HEARTSMAP Tool

HEARTSMAP LogoHEARTSMAP is an electronic, clinical assessment tool developed to guide clinical care for pediatric patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with a mental health concern. It has been in use at the BC Children’s Hospital pediatric emergency department (PED) as the standard assessment tool for youth presenting with mental health concerns since January 2015.

In the years following, it has continuously evolved and is currently being applied in various locations, settings, and populations:

Publications

  1. Gill C, Arnold B, Nugent S, Rajwani A, Xu M, Black T, Doan Q. Reliability of HEARTSMAP as a tool for evaluating psychosocial assessment documentation practices in emergency departments for pediatric mental health complaints.   
  2. Virk P, Stenstrom R, Doan Q. Reliability testing of the HEARTSMAP psychosocial assessment tool for multidisciplinary use and in diverse emergency settings.

HEARTSMAP Provincial Implementation

HEARTSMAP has been implemented across BC with support from the Specialist Services Committee (a collaboration of the BC Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC), and is now utilized in many EDs across BC, including the Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health Authority, Interior Health Authority, and Northern Health Authority. It will soon be implemented in EDs in the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

For more information on HEARTSMAP in BC Emergency Departments, please visit the HEARTSMAP website. 

Publications

  1. Koopmans E, Black T, Newton A,  Dhugga G, Karduri N, Doan Q. Provincial dissemination of HEARTSMAP, an emergency department psychosocial assessment and disposition decision tool for children and youth.

Open HEARTSMAP

Open HEARTSMAP is a publicly accessible version of the HEARTSMAP tool. While HEARTSMAP was originally developed for an ED setting, Open HEARTSMAP is available for clinicians to use at their discretion in EDs outside of BC and in community settings, where appropriate.

For more information on Open HEARTSMAP, please visit openheartsmap.ca. 

Publications

  1. Chun A, Panchmatia R, Doan Q, Meckler G, Narayan B. Twitter as a Knowledge Translation Tool to Increase Awareness of the OpenHEARTSMAP Psychosocial Assessment and Management Tool in the Field of Pediatric Emergency Mental Health.

MyHEARTSMAP

Adapted from HEARTSMAP, MyHEARTSMAP is a mental health self-assessment tool designed for use by youth and their families in the emergency department. Upon completion of the self-assessment, the tool generates recommendations for services that youth and families can access depending on their self-assessment scoring.

Ongoing Studies

Universal Psychosocial Screening Using MyHEARTSMAP in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients: A Randomized Control Study

This study investigates if universal mental health self-screening using MyHEARTSMAP in youth hospitalized for a non-mental health concern will improve their overall physical and mental health management. With recruitment finished, data analysis is now underway.

MyHEARTSMAP Pandemic Study

This study aims to use the MyHEARTSMAP tool to identify the frequency of mental health concerns in children and youth during the pandemic and describe the type and severity of these concerns, along with guiding families to relevant mental health resources. With recruitment finished, this study is now in data analysis.

Publications

  1. Woodward ML, Hossain A, Chun A, Liu C, Kilyk K, Bone JN, Meckler G, Black T, Stewart SE, Samji H, Barbic S, Doan Q. Evaluating the psychosocial status of BC children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A MyHEARTSMAP cross-sectional study.
  2. Li BCM, Wright B, Black T, Newton AS, Doan Q. Utility of MyHEARTSMAP in Youth Presenting to the Emergency Department with Mental Health Concerns.
  3. Lamoureux E, Ishikawa T, Yeates KO, Brooks BL, Beauchamp MH, Craig W, Gravel J, Zemek R, Doan Q. Convergent Validity of MyHEARTSMAP: A Pediatric Psychosocial Health Screening Tool. 
  4. Doan Q, Wright B, A, Atwal A, Hankinson E, Virk P, Azizi H, Stenstrom R, Black T, Gokiert R, and Newton A. Utility of MyHEARTSMAP for universal Psychosocial screening in the Emergency Department.
  5. Virk P, Laskin S, Gokiert R, Richardson C, Newton M, Stenstrom R, Wright B, Black T, Doan Q. MyHEARTSMAP: development and evaluation of a psychosocial self-assessment tool, for and by youth.

HEARTSMAP-U

In the coming months, HEARTSMAP will also be adapted for use in a post-secondary setting (HEARTSMAP-U). The study team will work closely with content experts and will engage students to tailor the tool for use online or in a university health clinic. This project aims to develop a reliable and accurate mental health self-assessment tool that can identify university-aged youth who may benefit from early intervention for mental health concerns and improve access to appropriate mental health services.

Ongoing Studies

Evaluating the Psychometric Properties and Help-Seeking Impact of HEARTSMAP-U: A Digital Psychosocial Self-Assessment and Navigational Support Application for Post-Secondary Students.

This study aims to evaluate how accurately HEARTSMAP-U identifies students with or without psychosocial issues, ranging from no mental health resources needed to urgent resources required, compared to a mental health provider’s assessment. With recruitment finished, data analysis is now underway.

Publications

  1. Virk P, Arora R, Burt H, Finnamore C, Gadermann A, Barbic S, Doan Q
    Evaluating the Psychometric Properties and Clinical Utility of a Digital Psychosocial Self-Screening Tool (HEARTSMAP-U) for Postsecondary Students: Prospective Cohort Study.
  2. HEARTSMAP-U: Virk P, Arora R, Burt H, Gadermann A, Barbic S, Nelson M, Davidson J, Cornish P, Doan Q. HEARTSMAP-U: Adapting a Psychosocial Self-Screening and Resource Navigation Support Tool for Use by Post-secondary Students.