What is the eCHAT project?

The CHAT (Case-finding and Help Assessment Tool) is a brief questionnaire which can be self-administered by adult patients (over 16 years) assessing whether they have problems with smoking, drinking, other drugs, gambling, anxiety, depression, abuse, anger and inactivity, and if they want help with any of these. The CHAT has been developed in NZ and extensively researched under the leadership of Felicity Goodyear-Smith, the principal investigator of this current study. Evaluation has demonstrated that it is well accepted by primary health care staff and patients, and it has been validated against a gold standard. The CHAT was recommended as a tool to be used in NZ general practice in the Ministry of Health Identification of common mental disorders guideline 2008 and the Ministry is currently arranging for the CHAT, along with the PHQ-9, GAD-7, AUDIT and K10, to be available through the practice management systems of all NZ general practices.

Our project involves patients self-administering the CHAT, along with the AUDIT, PHQ-9 or GAD-7, should they respond positively to alcohol problems, depression or anxiety respectively, through a touch screen in the waiting room. The electronic CHAT (ECHAT) data is transmitted to a server and then downloaded to the practice management system records for this patient. This means that when the patient then attends their GP or nurse, their ECHAT results are entered under screening. The information that the ECHAT has been completed will also appear in the daily record as ECHAT (EC) along with the composite measurement value. The full ECHAT results will be available in the screening window accompanied by a description of what these indicate. For example, if the patient scores 17 on the PHQ-9 component of the ECHAT, this will be designated as Moderate depression.