Evidence-based assessment/NICU

EBA in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
The NICU is a stressful place for families, and also for the care providers. There are a lot of sources of stress, and the environment contributes to high levels of anxiety, depression, acute stress, and trauma in parents and providers, as well as a lot of burn-out.

The setting would be an excellent place to offer more free and fast mental health assessment and support tools. The challenges are that this is a fast paced setting, with other major health issues confronting the infant (by definition).

Here is a table offering some suggestions about how the EBA model we are describing here might be adapted to be helpful in the NICU -- both for caregivers and for providers.

Twelve steps in implementing Evidence-Based Assessment, with suggestions for adaptation for the NICU Note. Steps use letters instead of numbers to reinforce the idea that there is not a strict order.