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Behavioral Health Resources

TEAMcare An Integrated Multicondition Collaborative Care Program for Chronic Illnesses and Depression

Patients with poorly controlled diabetes, coronary heart disease, and depression have an increased risk of adverse outcomes. In a randomized, controlled trial, we tested an intervention designed to improve disease control outcomes for diabetes and/or heart disease and coexisting depression. Patients with one or more parameters of poor medical disease control (ie, HbA1c ≥8.5, or SBP >140, or LDL >130) and a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) ≥10 were randomized to the TEAMcare intervention or usual care (N = 214). This article will describe the TEAMcare health services model that has been shown to improve quality of care and medical and psychiatric outcomes.

Using Disease Registries to Improve Your Practice Population’s Health

This webinar focuses on effective strategies for engaging justice-involved populations and ways to support individuals transitioning to communities. The speakers shared case studies to illustrate the ways that providers have managed transitions of care and supported people. This session is approved by the American Academy of Family Physicians for up to 1 AMA Level 1 CME credit.

Physician Burnout

The health care environment—with its packed workdays, demanding pace, time pressures, and emotional intensity—can put physicians and other clinicians at high risk for burnout. Burnout is a long-term stress reaction marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment. In recent years, the rising prevalence of burnout among clinicians (over 50 percent in some studies) has led to questions on how it affects access to care, patient safety, and care quality. Burned-out doctors are more likely to leave practice, which reduces patients’ access to and continuity of care. Burnout can also threaten patient safety and care quality when depersonalization leads to poor interactions with patients and when burned-out physicians suffer from impaired attention, memory, and executive function.

Correlates of Patient-Centered Care Practices at U.S. Substance Use Disorder Clinics

Substance use disorder treatment professionals are paying increased attention to implementing patient-centered care. Understanding environmental and organizational factors associated with clinicians’ efforts to engage patients in clinical decision-making processes is essential for bringing patient-centered care to the addictions field. This study examined factors associated with patient-centered care practices in substance use disorder treatment.

Telehealth Tips: Managing Suicidal Clients During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current need for social distancing and isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a quick expansion of the provision of mental health services via remote platforms. This tip sheet provides some tips for evaluating and treating suicidal individuals remotely via telehealth.

ASHP Guidelines on Preventing Diversion of Controlled Substances

Controlled substances (CS) diversion in health systems can lead to serious patient safety issues, harm to the diverter, and significant liability risk to the organization. Diversion driven by addiction puts patients at risk of harm, including inadequate relief of pain, inaccurate documentation of their care in the medical record, exposure to infectious diseases from contaminated needles and drugs, and impaired healthcare worker (HCW) performance. In addition to patient harm, there are regulatory and legal risks to the organization, including fraudulent billing and liability for resulting damages, and decreased community confidence in the healthcare system. These guidelines provide a detailed and comprehensive framework to support organizations in developing their CS diversion prevention program (CSDPP) in order to protect patients, employees, the organization, and the community-at-large. Ultimately, each organization is responsible for developing a CSDPP that complies with applicable federal and state laws and regulations but also one that applies technology and diligent surveillance to routinely review process compliance and effectiveness, strengthen controls, and seek to proactively prevent diversion.

How to Measure Motivational Interviewing Fidelity in Randomized Controlled Trials: Practical Recommendations

Many randomized controlled trials in which motivational interviewing (MI) is a key intervention make no provision for the assessment of treatment fidelity. This methodological shortcoming makes it impossible to distinguish between high- and low-quality MI interventions, and, consequently, to know whether MI provision has contributed to any intervention effects. This article makes some practical recommendations for the collection, selection, coding and reporting of MI fidelity data, as measured using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Code. We hope that researchers will consider these recommendations and include MI fidelity measures in future studies.

Telehealth for the Treatment of Serious Mental Illness & Substance Use Disorders

This guide contains a foreword and five chapters. The chapters stand alone and do not need to be read in order. Each chapter is designed to be brief and accessible to healthcare providers, healthcare system administrators, community members, policymakers, and others working to meet the needs of people at risk for, experiencing, or recovering from SMI and/or SUD. The goal of this guide is to review the literature on the effectiveness of telehealth modalities for the treatment of SMI and SUD, distill the research into recommendations for practice, and provide examples of how practitioners use these practices in their programs.

Use of the Family CAGE in Screening for Alcohol Problems in Primary Care

To establish the reliability and validity of the Family CAGE (an acronym indicating Cut down on drinking; Annoyed by complaints about drinking; Guilty about drinking; had an Eye-opener first thing in the morning), a four-item instrument intended to assess family alcohol-related problems.

Implementing Care for Alcohol & Other Drug Use in Medical Settings An Extension of SBIRT

This change guide is designed to assist primary care clinicians and leaders to integrate care for patients with unhealthy alcohol and/or other drug use into routine medical care. As behavioral health care is increasingly integrated into medical settings, especially primary care, the focus is often on depression and anxiety. Care for alcohol and/or other drugs is often omitted or minimized, likely reflecting: stigma, lack of workforce training/education, and the traditional separation of care for alcohol and other drugs from traditional health care (e.g., primary care, emergency care, and behavioral health, etc.). This guide expands on and updates the widely recognized model of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT).

IBHA Recommended Measures to Assess Behavioral Health Integration in Primary Care

IBHA recommends that health systems, insurance plans, and others looking to measure progress toward integrating behavioral health in primary care use the 2017 PCPCH Standard 3.C.3 as the integration metric of choice. At the system level, IBHA concurs that measuring practice-level progress toward adopting excellent integrated care delivery models in the most meaningful way to affect system change.

Fighting Back Against the Stigma of Addiction

Untreated drug and alcohol use contributes to tens of thousands of deaths every year and affects the lives of many more people. We have effective treatments, including medications for opioid and alcohol use disorders, that could prevent a significant number of these deaths, but they are not being utilized widely enough, and people who could benefit often do not even seek them out. One important reason is the stigma around those with addiction.

Common Comorbidities with Substance Use Disorders Research Report

When two disorders or illnesses occur in the same person, simultaneously or sequentially, they are described as comorbid. Comorbidity also implies that the illnesses interact, affecting the course and prognosis of both.1,2 This research report provides information on the state of the science in the comorbidity of substance use disorders with mental illness and physical health conditions.
Integrated Care DC is managed by the DC Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) in partnership with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). This project is supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A total of $4,598,756, or 74 percent, of the project is financed with federal funds, and 1,639,167, or 26 percent, is funded by non-federal sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, or an endorsement by, HHS or the U.S. Government.