WATCH: Advocacy for Collaborative Care (CoCM) Webinar Recording. This webinar highlighted the landscape of CoCM in the United States. Panelists described efforts to advance the knowledge, use, and fidelity of CoCM. Examples were provided of state systemic change as well as health insurers' initiatives to advance CoCM. Additionally, an overview of federal policies and laws currently in place was shared, followed by panelists describing their state and organization’s efforts to promote new legislation and policies.

WATCH: Treating Substance Use in Collaborative Care (CoCM) Webinar. This webinar highlighted considerations for identifying and treating substance use disorder(s) in primary care utilizing CoCM. The panelists described research, implementation strategies, tools and processes that are successful in working with patients who have a substance use disorder. This discussion was followed by participant Q&A. 

WATCH: Registry Innovations in Collaborative Care Webinar. This webinar included an overview of important considerations when choosing a population-based registry tool, a panelist discussion, and Q&A. Panelist highlighted the process their organizations underwent to implement a population-based registry tool that facilitates Collaborative Care at a patient and program level.

After training with the AIMS Center, Columbia County Health System in Dayton, WA has built a robust behavioral health program that makes resourceful use of telepsychiatry. Read more about the care model and barriers to behavioral health access in rural communities. 

WATCH: Sharing the Responsibilities of the BHCM in CoCM Webinar, featuring panelists discussing how they set up their workflows, including the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned during the process. This is a continuation of our quarterly webinar series, a recording of the webinar can be found below, and slide handouts can be downloaded here.

WATCH: Webinar on Billing CoCM codes, featuring three health system panelists describing their CoCM billing workflows – including benefits, challenges, and lessons learned. This webinar kicked off our new quarterly webinar series, a recording of the webinar can be found below, and slide handouts can be downloaded here.

The power of CoCM was testified to by Anna Ratzliff  before the US Senate Committee on Finance, highlighting its ability to leverage scarce psychiatric resources to treat a large number of patients in primary care and to get more patients better faster than usual primary care, even when usual care includes embedded psychotherapists.

Poll suggests increased need for mental health services, experts recommend CoCM  

A new study showed that Collaborative Care eliminated mental health care disparities between Black and white pregnant people. This study was presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting; research suggests that implementation of the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) during pregnancy improves the screening and treatment of depression and reduces racial disparities.

Two health plans share their experiences implementing Collaborative Care in a recent article in Psychiatric News. More than eighty published studies have shown that the Collaborative Care Model CoCM lowers the cost of care and results in better patient outcomes. While implementation of CoCM continues to gain momentum nationally, widescale implementation remains slow.

Patient-centered, high-quality mental health care requires providers to focus on population health. The Integrated Care Fellowship at the University of Washington prepares fellows for population-based health care.

On Sept. 10, U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX)  introduced bipartisan legislation that supports the implementation of Collaborative Care in the U.S.. This comes at an important time because 4 in 10 U.S. adults report symptoms of depression or anxiety, and 1 in 10 say they have seriously considered suicide.

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry shows that Collaborative Care (CoCM) for bipolar disorder and/or PTSD is just as effective as treatment provided by a psychiatrist and psychologist. Both Collaborative Care and specialty mental health care were delivered by telemedicine to patients in federally qualified health centers. As stated in the article, “Patients in both groups experienced large and clinically meaningful improvements from baseline to 12 months.”

This updated resource from the AIMS Center guides organizations through developing thoughtful and clear suicide prevention protocols in primary care settings. The document includes principles to consider, essential elements of a suicide prevention protocol, and supporting resources, toolkits, and handouts to aid staff and providers in their response plans. 

As the pandemic heightens the demand for mental healthcare, experts are pushing for the adoption of scalable, evidence-based integrated care models like Collaborative Care. An article in Psychiatric News states that "CoCM is the only model that bundles all integrated services - including the psychiatric case review and recommendations - and is reimbursed by insurance; it is also the model with the most extensive evidence base for improved outcomes."