Interdisciplinary Strategies for Improving Mental Health Support in Surgical Patients: Insights from Social Workers, Health Assistants, Nursing, Laboratory, Operations And Anesthesia

Abstract

Mental health concerns are prevalent in up to 50% of surgical patients and linked to increased complications, longer hospital stays and poorer recovery.

This review aims to explore strategies for improving interdisciplinary collaboration around mental health support for surgical patients, from the perspectives of professionals across key specialties.

Social workers play an important role in addressing patients' psychosocial needs in the perioperative period. Their responsibilities include conducting mental health assessments, screening for issues like depression, anxiety, or substance abuse, and developing care plans to connect patients with appropriate community resources and counseling or worsening mental health concerns.

Laboratory staff play an important role through diagnostic testing that screens for medical conditions like anemia which if unaddressed could increase patients' stress levels.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals (n=25) from social work (n=8), nursing (n=7), laboratory (n=3), operations (n=4), and anesthesia (n=3) at a large urban hospital. Purposive sampling identified participants with direct patient contact. Interviews lasted 30-45 minutes, following an interview guide with open-ended questions about current practices, opportunities for improvement, and strategies. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Thematic analysis involved familiarization with data, generating initial codes, identifying themes, and reviewing themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the hospital research board.

Participants reported mental health concerns due to lack of coordination and information sharing between disciplines. Participants felt interdisciplinary team meetings, centralized electronic documentation, and mental health training could improve coordination, catch gaps earlier and develop shared care plans.

Findings highlight the need for more structured interdisciplinary collaboration to address surgical patients' mental health holistically. Lack of communication and coordination between specialties results in fragmented care that may miss or inadequately address issues impacting recovery. Future research could test implementation of collaborative strategies and their impact on outcomes.

This review explored opportunities to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration around mental health support for surgical patients. Further research is warranted to develop and evaluate collaborative models of care.