- October 12, 2017
- Jennifer Salerno
RAAPS versus GAPS and other homegrown risk screening tools
People pose the “why?” question every day. Why should I invest the time, energy and resources into an adolescent risk screening and counseling technology? We may be biased, but our answer is simple: why not?
Before we dive into the several reasons why thousands of sites nationwide find tremendous value of integrating RAAPS into their practice or program, here is the 140-character, tweet-friendly definition of RAAPS: a standardized, validated risk assessment and behavior change counseling tool to support health professionals working with adolescents.
In simplified language, we make it easy for health professionals to do their job. We partner with clinicians, counselors and other providers who are passionate about improving adolescent health. Our partners—like school-based health centers, pediatric offices, sexual health clinics, schools, etc.—operate within a preventative-oriented culture (not crisis-oriented) and genuinely care about identifying risks, improving outcomes and changing lives. It’s not for the faint of heart.
RAAPS can make you money
“Say what?!” (Please excuse our language. Sometimes we find the way teens speak kind of catchy.) Yes, our leading risk assessments can save you money. How?
- RAAPS dramatically improves the productivity of your existing staff and the effectiveness of your operations. You will no longer have to sit face-to-face with your patient, ask the sometimes-awkward questions, record the data, then figure out how to best counsel the patient to promote positive behavior change. RAAPS saves a provider’s time by flagging potential risk behaviors and offering health message talking points to guide the conversation.
- By using a standardized, validated tool (RAAPS) to screen adolescents each month, the cloud-based system may be able to pay for itself. Assuming an average insurance reimbursement rate of $5 per administration, your sites would need to use the system with only 10 patients per month in order to recover the cost of using the system. #winning
RAAPS’ real-time tracking and easy to use reporting measures outcomes
Can your risk screening tool do this? If it’s not RAAPS, the answer is likely no. Access to individual and population data allows you to identify trends and assess your intervention effectiveness. Plus, data gathered can be helpful when applying for grants and gaining additional funding.
RAAPS asks the right questions
The risk landscape is always changing and unfortunately widening, which is why we continue to update or modify our questions to elicit honest responses from teens. Other risk screening tools, such as GAPS, hasn’t been updated since the early 2000’s. The way teens speak and the risks they’re involved in have changed drastically since the era of Boy Meets World and Backstreet Boys. At Possibilities for Change, we continue to identify issues and areas that are harmful to a teen’s health and well-being. One of the many beautiful things about RAAPS is that all questions are scientifically validated—and we used teens to help us refine the actual questions so that they were more understandable and relevant! Unlike most homegrown tools, the RAAPS youth-friendly patient portal includes audio and bilingual health messages features to increase health literacy.
The 21-question RAAPS assessment falls within seven risk categories identified by the CDC as contributing to adolescent morbidity and mortality. The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine has our back, citing RAAPS as one of their important resources, handouts, toolkits and treatment protocols for healthcare providers to use in their practices.
In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, the manner and method of how we ask is just as important as what we ask. When it comes to discussions around things like sexual behavior and alcohol use, teens are more honest and comfortable answering to a tablet or other technology than an adult. The assessment takes about 5 minutes to complete—a better alternative to other assessments out there that take more than a half hour. Ain’t nobody got time for that! (We warned you.)
Learn more about RAAPS at possibilitiesforchange.com or drop us a line at info@pos4chg.org.