Reframing paediatric mental health screening and assessment in emergency care through a biopsychosocial lens: A call for system-level integration.

Abstract

Background: Paediatric mental health crises are an escalating burden in global emergency care, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 10-19-year-olds. Emergency settings often represent the first point of contact for children in psychological distress. However, fragmented implementation, limited use of holistic approaches, and an absence of validated screening tools in paramedicine, contribute to missed opportunities for early intervention.

Methods: This scoping review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodological framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines and sourced literature from key databases from 2004 to 2024. Included studies involved validated screening or assessment tools for children aged 0-19 used in emergency care contexts. Data were extracted, charted, and thematically analysed using a biopsychosocial (BPS) lens to evaluate tool design, clinical feasibility, and relevance.

Results: Thirty studies met inclusion criteria, identifying 21 screening and 10 assessment tools, mainly used in hospital-based emergency departments. None were applied in paramedicine. Only five tools aligned with the BPS model. Key barriers included time constraints, training deficits, care discontinuity, and limited inclusivity for culturally and linguistically diverse or neurodivergent populations.

Conclusion: There is an urgent need for BPS-informed, developmentally appropriate tools tailored for paramedic use to improve equitable, child-centred emergency mental health care.