Explication of a Behavioral Health-Primary Care Integration Learning Collaborative and Its Quality Improvement Implications

Abstract

In an effort to tackle fragmented care in the US healthcare delivery system, we explored the use of learning collaborative (LC) to advance integration of behavioral health and primary care as one of the potential solutions to a holistic approach to the delivery of quality healthcare to individuals with physical and mental illness. How a diverse group of primary care and behavioral health providers formed a Community of Practice (CoP) with a common purpose and shared vision to advance integrated care using a LC approach is described. An account of their learning experience, key components of their quality improvement, practice changes, clinical processes, and improved outcomes are explained. This paper aims at describing the history, creative design, processes, roles of the CoP and impact of the LC on the advancement of integrated care practice and quality improvements for further exploration and replications.

Social Context for Healthcare

“…It is crucial that primary healthcare becomes a key element in guaranteeing the highest quality of healthcare and well-being through a more equitable approach to delivering professional services to all people across the world. In primary care, health promotion, disease prevention, prompt treatment, and rehabilitation are essential components of theoretical, policy-related, and practical methodologies in health services (Okafor et al, 2018). At the global and local levels, equity is a necessary commitment at the highest levels of government.…”

Poverty, Reproductive Health and Public Health Policies in Chile

“…The best practices for an integrated management are reached through the articulation of activities and fluid relations between disciplines, professions, departments, institutions, and organizations [78]. Thus, it is overcome the ambivalence of the responsibilities and the institutional segmentation in the execution of the reproductive health policy, among other [79].…”

“…The health practice has been developed excessively segmented and without communication, which is a culture of fragmented work that just benefits to those who apply specific perspectives and do not solve collective issues of greater social complexity. The fragmentation is the heart of ineffectiveness because it determines a poor link between health systems and social systems [79]. To achieve an approximation to what people, require an accurate diagnosis is needed, which must necessarily represent the psychosocial reality of the groups with which we will work and, have as much knowledge as possible of the forms of solution from people's own perspectives, of what they recognize as problems and what they want as a solution.…”

Integrating behavioral health and substance use models for advanced PMHN practice in primary care: Progress made in the 21st century

“…These consortiums can be better organized and supported by HRSA staff, particularly for the grantees but the concept is a great opportunity to bring nurses together. Some grantees have developed Communities of Practice (CoP) where meetings are planned and facilitated via teleconferences to lead quality improvement and change across the partnerships ( Okafor, et al, 2018 ). PMHNPs must move beyond their specialty organizations and institutions to be clear what nurses and APRNs do and why they do it well.…”