IPCHS

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

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Oct. 28, 2021 Americas

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

“They’re very passionate about making sure that women stay healthy”: a qualitative examination of women’s experiences participating in a community paramedicine program

Community paramedicine programs (i.e., physician-directed preventive care by emergency medical services personnel embedded in communities) offer a novel approach to community-based health care. Project Swaddle, a community paramedicine program for mothers and their infants, seeks to address (directly or through referrals) the physical, mental, social, and economic needs of its participants. Results demonstrate Project Swaddle helped women connect with other healthcare providers, including increased access to mental health services. The community paramedics were able to help women establish care with primary care providers and pediatricians, then facilitate communication with these providers.

Oct. 21, 2021 Americas

Teamwork: A Multidisciplinary Review

Promoting integrated care initiatives is an important approach to addressing growing gaps in access to mental health. This article presents a multidisciplinary review of essential team elements and how to optimize team performance. Fostering a collaborative team approach can produce more effective and efficient mental health ca

Oct. 1, 2021 Americas

Social work student reflections on training in integrated care: opportunities for social work educators

Integrated care, an approach designed to improve health/ behavioral health outcomes and increase quality of life, has received international interest. Given the important roles social workers play in this approach, American universities have begun novel training programs to better prepare social workers to work in integrated care. The aim of this study is to better understand the experiences of recent MSW trainees, and how they can inform future educational/ training programs. Focus groups of MSW students who recently completed integrated care training programs were conducted (N = 9). Content analysis of the focus group data resulted in three main themes: Gaps ...

Sept. 10, 2021 Americas

Measurement-based care in integrated health care: A randomized clinical trial

Many suggest that the next step for integrated care is widespread implementation of measurement-based care (MBC). Although the measures most associated with MBC are standardized, no randomized clinical trial has demonstrated their use to improve psychotherapeutic outcomes with embedded behavioral health providers in integrated care. Two evidence-based MBC systems have been studied in a variety of behavioral health environments, but neither system has been investigated in integrated health care. Addressing this gap in the literature, the present study evaluated the use of MBC, specifically the Partners for Change Outcome Management System, in three integrated care sites.

June 17, 2021 Americas

Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors

Harnessing the Electronic Health Record to Advance Integrated Care

Integrated health care is utilized in primary care clinics to meet patients' physical, behavioral, and social needs. Current methods to collect and evaluate the effectiveness of integrated care require refinement. Using informatics and electronic health records (EHR) to distill large amounts of clinical data may help researchers measure the impact of integrated care more efficiently. This exploratory pilot study aimed to (a) determine the feasibility of using EHR documentation to identify behavioral health and social care components of integrated care, using social work as a use case, and (b) develop a lexicon to inform future research using natural language processing.

May 13, 2021 Americas

Implementing patient-centred integrated care for multiple chronic conditions Evidence-informed framework

Fifteen years ago, the term multimorbidity rarely appeared in chronic disease health care policies. Today, research has revealed very high rates of multimorbidity, leading to it being labeled the number one challenge in developed countries. Paradoxically, chronic disease prevention and management (CDPM) programs of integrated care have popped up in all health care systems but they mainly follow a single-disease approach in their interventions. In this article, we define CDPM programs broadly as any interventions intended to improve care for patients with chronic diseases and risk factors; these are added to usual care and are typically delivered by a team.

May 6, 2021 Americas

The Growth of Integrated Care Models in Urology

With heightened awareness of health care outcomes and efficiencies and reimbursement-based metrics, it is ever more important that urologists consider the effects of integrated care models on physicians/staff/clinics fulfillment and patient outcomes, and whether and how to optimally implement these models within their unique practice settings. Despite growing evidence that integrating care improves outcomes, uncertainty persists regarding which approach is most efficient and achievable in terms of specialty considerations and financial resources. In this article, we discuss strategies for integrating urologic care and its impact on current and future health care delivery.

April 29, 2021 Americas

Behavioral interventions in acute COVID-19 recovery: A new opportunity for integrated care

New York City was the epicenter of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Critically ill patients surviving prolonged ventilation, medical complications, and protracted delirium are profoundly debilitated. In response, our hospital temporarily created a novel, hybrid inpatient medicine-rehabilitation unit for COVID-19 survivors. Patients are medically monitored and work towards rehabilitation goals with daily physical and occupational therapy (PT/OT). To our knowledge, it is the only such unit in our region. Here, we describe how neuropsychology and consultation-liaison psychiatry have collaborated to implement interventions within this unit to facilitate patients' recovery.

April 22, 2021 Americas

The primary care behavioral health model (PCBH) and medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD): integrated models for primary care

Recent decades have witnessed increases in (a) integrated physical and behavioral health services and (b) the treatment of opioid use disorders (OUD) in primary care settings – also known as office-based opioid treatments (OBOT) – using a combination of medication and psychosocial support. Providing these services requires a workforce trained to address addiction’s psychosocial components and interventions addressing addiction’s biological and neurological mechanisms. This paper examines the implementation factors, clinic workflow and roles, and administrative considerations of two models of integrated care in order to identify ways of increasing treatment capacity and expanding OUD treatment uptake in integrated primary care ...

April 13, 2021 Americas

The Seniors' Community Hub: An Integrated Model of Care for the Identification and Management of Frailty in Primary Care

Integrated models of primary care deliver the comprehensive and preventative approach needed to identify and manage frailty in older people. Seniors' Community Hub (SCH) was developed to deliver person-centered, evidence-informed, coordinated, and integrated care services to older community dwelling adults living with frailty. This paper aims to describe the SCH model, and to present patient-oriented results of the pilot.