Managing physical and mental health conditions: Consumer perspectives on integrated care

Abstract

Background Despite the growing trend of integrating primary care and mental health services, little research has documented how consumers with severe mental illnesses manage comorbid conditions or view integrated services. Objectives We sought to better understand how consumers perceive and manage both mental and physical health conditions and their views of integrated services. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with consumers receiving primary care services integrated in a community mental health setting. Results Consumers described a range of strategies to deal with physical health conditions and generally viewed mental and physical health conditions as impacting one another. Consumers viewed integration of primary care and mental health services favorably, specifically its convenience, friendliness and knowledge of providers, and collaboration between providers. Conclusions Although integration was viewed positively, consumers with SMI may need a myriad of strategies and supports to both initiate and sustain lifestyle changes that address common physical health problems.

Experiences of barriers to trans-sectoral treatment of patients with severe mental illness. A qualitative study.

“…Literature has shown that patients want integrated care and shared knowledge [ 7 ]; that they view general practice as important for continuity of care, and that they value GPs’ listening skills [ 10 ]. This corresponds to the findings in the present study, where collaboration was hampered by the lack of information flowing from psychiatry to general practice.…”

“…Several research projects have tried to unravel this problem and to find solutions [1,4,5]. Focus has been on collaborative work between medical and psychiatric care, either based in the hospital system [6][7][8][9] or involving the professionals from the primary health care sector [10][11][12][13]. Most of these programmes have shown disappointing results.…”

“…A study of patient perspectives on integrated care explored how people with SMI and physical comorbidity manage their conditions, and that they viewed integration between primary and secondary care as important, not only in regard to the physical diseases. Continuity of care and listening skills from their primary care provider were also important in relation to the mental disease [ 10 ]. Another study showed that patients who received integrated care were more satisfied with their treatment than patients who received treatment separately from the primary and the secondary care sectors [ 7 ].…”

What integrated care means from an older person’s perspective? A scoping review protocol

“…However, despite the growing body of scientific evidence relating to integrated care and its implications, few studies 12 13 have summarised patients’ perspectives and expectations of integrated care. There is a lack of comprehensive understanding of what older people themselves consider to be integrated care, what does it mean to them and what do they expect.…”

Perspectives of Individuals With Serious Mental Illness on a Reverse–Colocated Care Model: A Qualitative Study

“…Consumers in that study discussed the challenges of coordinating their care among multiple providers. Among individuals with serious mental illness already receiving care in a reverse-integrated system, Rollins and colleagues (28) found that consumers specifically cited convenience, friendly staff, and increased collaboration among providers as features fueling a positive view of the care setting. Given the engagement difficulties noted in realworld pilot studies of reverse-integrated systems, there is a critical need to build on this evidence base in order to understand how to tailor reverse-integrated and reversecolocated models to engage consumers.…”