Washington – USA:
Posted in: Monday 21 September 2020 – 10:08 p.m. | Last updated: Monday, September 21, 2020 – 10:08 am
Recent medical research has confirmed the importance of providing facilities for mental health care, at a time when rates of anxiety and depression are increasing among people, in light of the steady spread of the new Corona virus, and the continued application of the social distancing policy, as well as facing many primary care clinics – especially in rural areas Increasing patient needs.
And researchers at the University of Washington College of Medicine reported – according to findings published in the Annals of Family Medicine – that primary care physicians and rural clinic staff felt more skilled at providing mental health care if they used a model known as “collaborative care.”
In the research model, primary care physicians retain primary responsibility for treating behavioral health disorders, with the support of two team members being a care manager and a consulting psychiatrist, and counseling psychiatrists make recommendations on patient care through weekly reviews of the number of cases that take place online.
“We found that primary care physicians participating in this collaboration became better at diagnosing and prescribing, as well as working as a team,” said Dr. Murhaf Al-Ashqar, professor of family medicine at the University of Washington College of Medicine.
In the current qualitative study, researchers conducted interviews with 17 medical staff, support staff, and administrative staff at 3 rural clinics in Washington state. Study participants said that the consultations improved their efficiency in identifying and treating mental disorders.
The researchers concluded that weekly systematic reviews of cases using remote psychiatric consultations serve as a model for patient care and as a strategy for training and developing the workforce.
Al-Ashqar added: “The learning was two-way. Primary care physicians learned how to work better with patients, while care managers were able to assess the extent to which medical problems affected mental health and how to diagnose and evaluate mental health problems, while consulting psychiatrists learned how to train a team. Primary care. “
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