Brief Description
- Articulate roles and opportunities for psychiatrists to improve access to and quality of behavioral health services in context of Patient Centered Health Care Homes and Accountable Care Organizations.
- Population-based consultation for patients with common behavioral health problems in primary care and other general medical settings.
- Identify functions/roles/competencies of primary care psychiatrists.
- Categories of consultation:
- Direct – follow-up care, triage assessment, shared care
- Indirect – consult with PCP, consult with behavioral health
- Admin/leadership – liaison/policy, training, team
- Develop training opportunities, approaches, and materials to train primary care-based, public health-focused psychiatrists.
- Existing training programs (medical school, residency, fellowships, other post-graduate)
- Retraining needs (CME for current psychiatrists)
- Develop strategic partnerships with Professional organizations (e.g., APA Task Force on Integrated Care, APM, AACP, NCCBH Medical Directors’ group).
Opportunity (Why Now?)
- Behavioral health care is an important part of effective primary care.
- Movement towards Patient Centered Health Care Homes and Accountable Care Organizations: articulate effective and cost effective ways for psychiatrists to function in this context.
- Evidence base that integrated care contributes to ‘triple aim’ (improved access, quality, patient experience and lower total health care costs).
- Psychiatrists are a limited resource in most health care settings and need to learn to function effectively in collaboration with other providers (ARNP/PA, etc.).
- Interest in APA and other groups of psychiatrists in taking a leadership role in integrated behavioral health care, providing effective behavioral health services to larger populations of patients that can be reached through traditional consultation and referral models
Partners
