Build Your Team

In usual care, the depression treatment team has two members: the primary care provider and the patient. Collaborative Care adds two new team members: the behavioral health care manager and the psychiatric consultant. Effective Collaborative Care is a team of providers working together on a single treatment plan. Its success relies on each member of the treatment team understanding their role and believing they have the knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill that role.

A Note on Culture

Team members will need to function outside of the traditional roles they were trained for and rely on each other in ways that may be new or uncomfortable. Primary care providers are familiar with an entirely different culture than behavioral health specialists, but both perspectives are extremely important, and both need to be woven into a new collaborative culture that sees differences as strengths. The Implementation Leader should carefully consider the pros and cons of re-training existing staff versus hiring new staff, keeping in mind the challenges implementation brings and the personalities involved.

Implementation Resources

The Implementation Leader should identify all relevant Collaborative Care tasks on the Team Member Self-Assessment and tailor the worksheet accordingly. Once appropriately modified, have each team member fill it out.

• Team Member Self-Assessment

Next, using responses from the step above, the Implementation Leader should complete the Task Summary Worksheet. Examine the completed worksheet to identify gaps and duplications in tasks as well as opportunities to make each task more efficient. Think about ways to collaborate effectively and discuss critical communication and ‘handoff’ steps with the Planning Team.

• Task Summary Worksheet