Cleft Summit 2025: How to Ensure Psychosocial Assessments Actually Improve the Lives of Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

Objective The 3 rd Cleft Summit examined whether and how cleft teams assess the psychosocial impact of facial differences on children and their families and sought to develop actionable strategies for improving psychosocial outcomes. Design Expert consensus study followed by a descriptive cross-sectional survey. Setting A 2-hour summit held during a three-and-a-half-day international Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop in Cartegena, Colombia. Participants A total of 117 cleft care professionals, from 35 different countries, and representing diverse specialties completed the post-summit survey. Activity/Survey Participants engaged in an iterative interdisciplinary discussion addressing responsible psychosocial assessment and implementation across resource settings. A 38-item survey evaluated mental health screening and patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) practices, institutional capacity, and training needs. Summit and Survey Outcomes Expert consensus recommendations, current assessment practices, implementation capacity, and training needs. Results Participants reached consensus supporting psychosocial data collection when teams can protect privacy, respond appropriately to findings, and consider cultural context. Mental health screening was reported by 41% of respondents, and PROM collection was reported by 29.9%. Implementation capacity was moderate, generally ranging from 5 to 6 on a 10-point scale, and differed significantly across resource tiers ( P < 0.05). Financial and resource availability received the lowest ratings. Training needs were high across tiers for mental health screening and basic psychosocial support (means, 6.6-7.0) and PROM implementation (means >6.4). Conclusion The 3 rd Cleft Summit endorses capacity-driven psychosocial assessment and mental health training for non-specialist providers. Survey findings demonstrate current gaps and inform next steps toward advancing global comprehensive psychosocial cleft care.