What It Is
Collaborative Care is the most empirically supported model of behavioral health integration that seeks to treat commonly occurring behavioral health conditions such as depression and anxiety in the primary care setting. Collaborative care is different from co-located care and has two new roles added to the care team: a behavioral health (BH) care manager and a psychiatric consultant. In collaborative care, patients are routinely screened for depression and/or other behavioral health conditions using a standardized tool such as the PHQ-9 for depression.
How It Works
If a patient screens positive during the routine screening, the Primary Care Provider (PCP) makes a diagnosis and recommends Collaborative Care treatment, when appropriate. A warm connection is made with an in-house BH Care Manager.
The Care Manager will provide treatment and coordinate care with other team members. Responsibilities of a BH care manage include engaging the patient, providing brief therapeutic interventions, following up with patients, monitoring patients' progress using the standardized tool, and maintaining a population-based registry to track data.
Care manager follow-up and tracking allows patients to be identified if they are not improving with their current treatment plan. If a patient is found to not be improving, the case will be reviewed as a part of a weekly case consultation session between the BH Care manager and a Psychiatric Consultant.
The Psychiatric Consultant does not see the patient face-to-face as in traditional therapy, but provides treatment recommendations and support to the primary care team.