Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Quality integrated care, which involves primary care and mental health clinicians working together, can help identify and treat adolescent depression early. We explored systemic barriers to quality integrated care at the provincial level in Ontario, Canada using a learning system approach.Methods
Two Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), regional networks designed to support integrated care, completed the Practice Integration Profile (PIP) and participated in focus groups.Results
The OHTs had a median PIP score of 69 out of 100. Among the PIP domains, the lowest median score was case identification (50), and the highest one was workspace (100). The focus groups generated 180 statements mapped to the PIP domains. Workflow had the highest number of coded statements (59, 32.8%).Discussion
While the primary care practices included mental health clinicians on-site, the findings highlighted systemic barriers with adhering to the integrated care pathway for adolescent depression. These include limited access to mental health expertise for assessment and diagnosis, long wait times for treatment, and shortages of clinicians trained in evidence-based behavioral therapies. These challenges contributed to the reliance on antidepressants as the first line of treatment due to their accessibility rather than evidence-based guidelines.Conclusion
Primary care practices, within regional networks such as OHTs, can form learning systems to continuously identify the strategies needed to support quality integrated care for adolescent depression based on real-world data.
SUBMITTER: Sarakbi D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10836164 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan-Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Sarakbi Diana D Groll Dianne D Tranmer Joan J Kessler Rodger R Sears Kim K
International journal of integrated care 20240101 1
<h4>Background</h4>Quality integrated care, which involves primary care and mental health clinicians working together, can help identify and treat adolescent depression early. We explored systemic barriers to quality integrated care at the provincial level in Ontario, Canada using a learning system approach.<h4>Methods</h4>Two Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), regional networks designed to support integrated care, completed the Practice Integration Profile (PIP) and participated in focus groups.<h4>R ...[more]