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PANDORA'S BOX

Opening and Closing Pandora's Box teaches health care professionals to talk about sensitive family problems with patients and their parents in clinical settings. In this era of managed care, gathering information in a timely, efficient, and sensitive manner has never been more important. When physicians know how to ask the right questions and create an atmosphere in which patients feel comfortable talking, they can achieve their own goals, as well as those of insurers. Pandora's Box talks about how to obtain information about sensitive family problems from patients, in an empathetic way, as well as how to improve patient interview skills overall. Which, of course, leads to an improved level of care.

The goal of Pandora’s Box is to teach medical professionals concrete skills to help them screen for and address sensitive family problems in their young patients, including parental substance abuse, child-witnessed domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, and adolescent substance abuse.

Originally, Opening and Closing Pandora’s Box was a training program for members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). This training was so successful, that it was decided to convert the information into a self-study manual to make it more accessible to a broad range of providers. The manual was written with the valuable insight and expertise from doctors in the field, and reviewed by a panel that included the chair of the AAP's Committee on Substance Abuse (view advisors here). This manual has been distributed free-of-charge to over 17,000 medical professionals across the country, including medical residents and school nurses. (Click here for a copy.)

Pandora's Box describes ways to:

maximize the comfort of both the patient and the parent
initiate conversations about sensitive topics
discuss the child's concerns and alleviate anxiety
conclude difficult conversations in a timely and considerate way
make appropriate referrals and provide follow-up
special information about parental substance abuse, adolescent substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse

More recently, the manual evolved into an online teaching tool to be used in medical education programs or by individual health care providers. This website includes:

An on-line manual (in a printable, PDF format) that provides data on the effects of these sensitive family problems upon young patients and teaches residents interviewing skills that are not only effective in uncovering and addressing these sensitive issues, but that will also enhance their general medical interview skills.
Power Point presentations for chief residents, professors, supervisors, and and other educators to use in further exploring these issues with students and staff.
A centralized listing of referral services for all sensitive family issues – instead of searching through thousands of sites on-line to find a substance abuse treatment center for a patient’s father, or a domestic violence hotline for a mother.

Pandora’s Box also provides information on a variety of associated topics – including how to make social service referrals effective – as well as important links, news and research updates, and professional association policy statements on sensitive issues.

Click here to access the Pandora's Box website.