Researchers: Eitan Kerem¹, Hava Gadassi², Zachi Grossman^{3, 4}, Manuel Katz⁵, Basil Porter⁴, Chen Stein Zamir^6,7

Background: Psychosocial issues are an integral part of children's health and well-being. It was widely acknowledged that pediatricians should be increasingly involved in the management of psychosocial problems, and offer services as risk assessment, counseling, and coordination of care. Despite this broad agreement, Israeli pediatricians were less likely to take an active role in managing psychosocial problems.

Objectives: To assess the current perception of the pediatrician’s role in the management of psychosocial problems in Israel from both the parents’ and the pediatricians' perspectives, to identify main barriers and to examine the associations with relevant training.

Method: A cross sectional survey among 1000 parents and 173 pediatricians.

Findings: Although 55% of the parents were concerned with psychosocial problems, most of them did not discuss these issues with the pediatricians, and reported they did not perceive it as part of the pediatrician's role. Relevant training was associated with different barriers reported by the pediatricians; trained pediatricians were more likely to report on a lack of professional confidence and insufficient available resources as barriers, while pediatricians who did not receive any relevant training were more likely to report on the parents' perception of their role as a barrier. Training did not associate with the pediatricians' involvement in psychosocial problems.

Conclusions: Parents tend to avoid the discussion of psychosocial concerns in the primary care settings due to their perception of the pediatrician role. The pediatricians current training in mental health is insufficient to encourage change in the pediatricians' involvement in psychosocial problems.

Recommendations: 1) Planning of a training program for pediatricians in the field of mental-health 2) Implication of mental health issues and routinely discussions regarding psychosocial concerns initiated by the pediatricians to promote a change in their role perception.

Research end date: 10/2020