Does Primary Care Fill the Gap in Access to Specialty Mental Health Care? A Mixed Methods Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Broad consensus supports the use of primary care to address unmet need for mental health treatment.

Objective

To better understand whether primary care filled the gap when individuals were unable to access specialty mental health care.

Design

2018 mixed methods study with a national US internet survey (completion rate 66%) and follow-up interviews.

Participants

Privately insured English-speaking adults ages 18-64 reporting serious psychological distress that used an outpatient mental health provider in the last year or attempted to use a mental health provider but did not ultimately use specialty services (N = 428). Follow-up interviews were conducted with 30 survey respondents.

Main measures

Whether survey respondents obtained mental health c

SUBMITTER: Kyanko KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8734538 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature