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Psychological symptoms of 21 therapists who provided counseling to individuals affected by the crash of a commercial airliner were compared with those of 20 therapists from the same mental health center who did not participate in the disaster relief efforts. A symptoms checklist instrument was completed by both groups at four, eight, and 12 weeks after the crash. At four and eight weeks, the trauma counselors experienced significantly more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression than the therapists in the control group. At 12 weeks the only significantly increased symptom among the trauma counselors was avoidance behavior.

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No-shows in child and adolescent psychiatry are a particularly concerning phenomenon that have ramifications beyond productivity and mental health outcomes. One might contend that children have a fundamental right to health care, and the failure to address the no-show phenomenon passively impedes that human right. In this study, a queue-controlled modified open access scheduling model (QCMOAS) was compared to a traditional scheduling model for the incidence of no-shows in a community mental health child psychiatric med check clinic. A six month period of QCMOAS was compared to the preceding six months of traditional scheduling and the six month period exactly one year prior to QCMOAS. Z test was used for statistical significance. For the six month period immediately after the implementation of OCMOAS, a 7.32% decrease in no-show rate was observed, and compared to the six month period exactly 1 year prior to QCMOAS, a decrease of 6.38% was noted. In both cases the result was statistically significant. Preliminary interpretation of this data suggests that the employment of OCMOAS significantly decreased the no-show rate in this community mental health center's child and adolescent med check clinic. The findings are strengthened by the relatively large number of scheduled appointments reviewed and by the fact that statistical significance appeared to be unrelated to seasonal scheduling patterns. Limitations of this pilot study and recommendations for future investigation are discussed.