keyword: primary care provider

Why Practice Collaborative Care?

Introduction:

This resource outlines the benefits of Collaborative Care and is designed to be shared with PCPs, stakeholders, and others looking to implement CoCM.

For a printable version, download the resource below. A printable PDF is available for download; however, please note that this document may not conform to the WCAG-2 accessibility standards.

Why Practice Collaborative Care?

Collaborative care (CoCM) is beneficial to primary care providers (PCPs) and their patients because it offers better
medical care, access to psychiatry experts, helps with challenging patient cases, and team collaboration.

Established Evidence Base

  • CoCM has a robust evidence base of over 80 randomized controlled trials and has been shown to be the best approach to treating depression in many populations and settings.
  • CoCM has a strong and expanding evidence base for its use with diverse behavioral health diagnoses such as anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and dementia.

Better Medical Outcomes

  • CoCM is linked to better medical outcomes for patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic arthritis.
  • CoCM is recommended as a primary prevention strategy for cardiovascular events in patients without preexisting heart disease (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2014).

Help with Challenging Patient Cases

  • Many challenging cases likely have patients with untreated or undertreated behavioral health conditions. Behavioral health providers do the follow-up and intervention tasks that a busy PCP doesn’t have time to do, but make a big difference for patients.
  • PCPs are generally more satisfied working within an integrated behavioral health care program than within usual care (Family Community Health, 2015).

Faster Improvement

  • A 2016 retrospective study at Mayo Clinic found that the time to depression remission was 86 days in a CoCM program while in usual care it was 614 days.
  • Analysis of a large CoCM implementation found that early, intense intervention by the behavioral health provider was key to early improvement in patients with depression symptoms (Psychiatric Services, 2015).

It Takes a Team

  • CoCM uses an enhanced care team to provide a population based, treat-to-target approach to care. Through shared care planning, the team makes proactive changes in treatment to make sure that no patients fall through the cracks.
  • Only 30-50% of patients have a full response to the first treatment. That means 50-70% of patients need at least one treatment adjustment. Additional experts can help.

Primary Care Provider Role Handout

Introduction

Primary care providers (PCP) identify and engage patients in collaborative care, make diagnoses, and treat patients. The resource below describes the role of the PCP in more detail.

A printable PDF is available for download; however, please note that this document may not conform to the WCAG-2 accessibility standards.

The Role of the Primary Care Provider in Collaborative Care

The role of the primary care provider (PCP) in Collaborative Care (CoCM) is to oversee all aspects of a patient’s behavioral health care, including encouraging the patient’s participation, prescribing medications, and making referrals to specialty mental health care when needed. PCPs work in close collaboration with the patient’s behavioral health care manager (BHCM) and psychiatric consultant. This is summarized below. 

Collaborative Care Team

Diagram of the CoCM Team connections.

Identifies and Engages

  • Introduces Collaborative Care to a patient
  • Acquires informed patient consent
  • Initiates a warm connection to a BHCM

Makes Diagnosis

  • Formulates using validated screeners, exams, and history
  • Works with care team to diagnose complex behavioral health conditions
  • Observes over time and adjusts diagnosis as appropriate

Treats

  • Works with care team and patient to develop a treatment plan
  • Works with care team to implement treatment and make treatment adjustments
  • Prescribes medications as needed
  • Addresses safety concerns 
  • Monitors physical health and potential medication interactions

Applying the Integrated Care Approach: Skills for the PCP

Developed in conjunction with the AIMS Center, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) offers a 2-hour course outlining essential skills for a primary care provider within a Collaborative Care program. The course aims to help PCPs 1) understand the Collaborative Care model and develop skills to work with a psychiatric consultant and 2) strengthen behavioral health skills for a primary care setting.

This course is free and participants are eligible to earn Continuing Medical Education credits.

See also Collaborative Care for Primary Care Providers.

Primary Care Provider Champion Role Description

The Primary Care Provider (PCP) Champion plays a key role on the Clinic Implementation Team (CIT). The CIT is created when a medical practice is planning to implement Collaborative Care. This document outlines the PCP Champion’s key responsibilities with the team and their PCP colleagues, as well as the personal and professional characteristics that are most desirable in the role.