Preparing the Workforce for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration.

PURPOSE: To identify how organizations prepare clinicians to work together to integrate behavioral health and primary care. METHODS: Observational cross-case comparison study of 19 U.S. practices, 11 participating in Advancing Care Together, and 8 from the Integration Workforce Study. Practices varied in size, ownership, geographic location, and experience delivering integrated care. Multidisciplinary teams collected data (field notes from direct practice observations, semistructured interviews, and online diaries as reported by practice leaders) and then analyzed the data using a grounded theory approach. RESULTS: Organizations had difficulty finding clinicians possessing the skills and experience necessary for working in an integrated practice. Practices newer to integration underestimated the time and resources needed to train and organizationally socialize (onboard) new clinicians. Through trial and error, practices learned that clinicians needed relevant training to work effectively as integrated care teams. Training efforts exclusively targeting behavioral health clinicians (BHCs) and new employees were incomplete if primary care clinicians (PCCs) and others in the practice also lacked experience working with BHCs and delivering integrated care. Organizations' methods for addressing employees' need for additional preparation included hiring a consultant to provide training, sending employees to external training programs, hosting residency or practicum training programs, or creating their own internal training program. Onboarding new employees through the development of training manuals; extensive shadowing processes; and protecting time for ongoing education, mentoring, and support opportunities for new and established clinicians and staff were featured in these internal training programs. CONCLUSION: Insufficient training capacity and practical experience opportunities continue to be major barriers to supplying the workforce needed for effective behavioral health and primary care integration. Until the training capacity grows to meet the demand, practices must put forth considerable effort and resources to train their own employees.

Effective mental health consumer education: a preliminary exploration.

People with serious mental illnesses are increasingly becoming more active participants in their treatment and recovery. At times, their participation may be limited by incomplete, unclear, or insufficient information. The authors used a grounded theory approach to look at the unmet informational needs described by consumers. Participants in this study called for materials appropriate to their level of understanding, assistance with interpreting and comprehending information when necessary, and information on policies that affect the treatment they receive. Ultimately, an informed consumer is one empowered to make decisions about the course of his or her recovery and participate meaningfully in the patient-provider relationship.

Reflections on working for Senator Edward Kennedy, a vital ally in the effort to improve mental health access and care.

The author worked as a health policy fellow in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1999. These reflections on that experience provide a description of the ambience of working on health policy issues in the US Congress, how the author utilized his community psychiatric knowledge and skills to assist in the process of developing and promoting various health and mental health related issues, and what it was like working in the Kennedy office. In the wake of his death, the Senator's long and influential career and especially his role in advancing health and mental health access and care improvement cannot be overstated.

Preparing to implement medication algorithms: staff perspectives and system infrastructure.

To assess the readiness of mental health facilities in Oregon to implement medication algorithms using the Medication Management Approaches in Psychiatry toolkit (MedMAP) developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), researchers conducted interviews with 68 clinical and administrative employees of four inpatient and four outpatient mental health facilities in Oregon. Respondents had generally positive opinions about the algorithms, but they also expressed many concerns about logistics and implementation, chiefly related to medication selection and expected restrictions on choices for prescribing providers and patients. In implementing medication algorithms, it may be beneficial to assess staff perspectives as well as the capabilities of the program's infrastructure. The extent to which staff concerns, values, and needs are anticipated and promptly and responsively addressed is likely have a major influence on successful implementation.

Patterns of atypical antipsychotic subtherapeutic dosing among Oregon Medicaid patients.

OBJECTIVE: To examine a cohort of Medicaid patients with new prescriptions for atypical antipsychotic medication to determine the prevalence of subtherapeutic atypical antipsychotic medication use and to identify patient and prescribing provider characteristics associated with occurrence of subtherapeutic use. METHOD: This observational cohort study examined Medicaid administrative claims data for patients aged 20 to 64 years with a new prescription for an atypical antipsychotic medication (clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, ziprasidone) between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2004. Patient diagnostic information was identified using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes on submitted medical claims. Patient characteristics, prescribing provider characteristics, length of therapy, and dosing were examined. A logistic regression assessed the probability of subtherapeutic dosing. RESULTS: Among 830 individuals in our sample who began treatment with an atypical antipsychotic, only 15% had a documented diagnosis of schizophrenia, subtherapeutic dosing was common (up to 86% of patients taking quetiapine), and 40% continued less than 30 days with the index prescription. A logistic model indicated that a general practitioner as prescribing provider, length of therapy equal to or less than 30 days, and prescription of quetiapine were significantly associated with a subtherapeutic dose (p < .001, p = .028, and p < .001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there is extensive use of expensive atypical antipsychotic medications for off-label purposes such as sedation or for other practice patterns that should be explored further. Approaches that minimize off-label atypical antipsychotic use could be of considerable value to Medicaid programs. In addition, these findings support the need for the introduction or increased use of utilization monitoring and the implementation of medication practice guidelines as appropriate decision support for prescribing providers.

Initial results of the use of prescription order change forms to achieve dose form optimization (consolidation and tablet splitting) of SSRI antidepressants in a state Medicaid program.

BACKGROUND: One method to reduce drug costs is to promote dose form optimization strategies that take advantage of the flat pricing of some drugs, i.e., the same or nearly the same price for a 100 mg tablet and a 50 mg tablet of the same drug. Dose form optimization includes tablet splitting; taking half of a higher-strength tablet; and dose form consolidation, using 1 higher-strength tablet instead of 2 lower-strength tablets. Dose form optimization can reduce the direct cost of therapy by up to 50% while continuing the same daily dose of the same drug molecule. OBJECTIVE: To determine if voluntary prescription change forms for antidepressant drugs could induce dosing changes and reduce the cost of antidepressant therapy in a Medicaid population. METHODS: Specific regimens of 4 selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)- citalopram, escitalopram, paroxetine, and sertraline- were identified for conversion to half tablets or dose optimization. Change forms, which served as valid prescriptions, were faxed to Oregon prescribers in October 2004. The results from both the returned forms and subsequent drug claims data were evaluated using a segmented linear regression. Citalopram claims were excluded from the cost analysis because the drug became available in generic form in October 2004. RESULTS: A total of 1,582 change forms were sent to 556 unique prescribers; 9.2% of the change forms were for dose consolidation and 90.8% were for tablet splitting. Of the 1,118 change forms (70.7%) that were returned, 956 (60.4% of those sent and 85.5% of those returned) authorized a prescription change to a lower-cost dose regimen. The average drug cost per day declined by 14.2%, from Dollars 2.26 to Dollars 1.94 in the intervention group, versus a 1.6% increase, from Dollars 2.52 to Dollars 2.56, in the group without dose consolidation or tablet splitting of the 3 SSRIs (sertraline, escitalopram, and immediate-release paroxetine). Total drug cost for the 3 SSRIs declined by 35.6%, from Dollars 333,567 to Dollars 214,794, as a result of a 24.8% decline in the total days of SSRI drug therapy and the 14.2% decline in average SSRI drug cost per day. The estimated monthly cost avoidance from this intervention, based on pharmacy claims data, was approximately Dollars 35,285, about 2% of the entire spending on SSRI drugs each month, or about Dollars 0.09 per member per month. Program administration costs, excluding costs incurred by prescribers and pharmacy providers, were about 2% of SSRI drug cost savings. CONCLUSIONS: Voluntary prescription change forms appear to be an effective and well-accepted tool for obtaining dose form optimization through dose form consolidation and tablet splitting, resulting in reduction in the direct costs of SSRI antidepressant drug therapy with minimal additional program administration costs.

Validity and reliability of an inpatient severity of psychiatric illness measure.

Inpatient psychiatric severity measures are often used but few psychometric data are available. This study evaluated the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of a measure used to assess severity of psychiatric illness among inpatients. Using the severity measure, minimally trained raters conducted retrospective patient record reviews to assess medical necessity for psychiatric hospitalization. The data analysis compared 135 civilly committed psychiatric inpatients with a heterogeneous group of 248 psychiatric inpatients at a general hospital. The severity measure showed acceptable inter-rater reliability in both populations. Two-way analysis of variance showed that the intra-class correlation coefficient for the total score was 0.65 for general hospital subjects and 0.63 for civilly committed subjects. Differences in mean scores were substantial (15 out of a possible 75 points for general hospital subjects versus 42 for civilly committed subjects, Mann-Whitney U = 562, p < 0.001). As expected, all civilly committed subjects were well above admission cut-off score of 12, versus only 64% of the general hospital patients. The measure is appropriate for retrospective severity assessment and may also be useful for pre-admission screening.

Outcomes of patients in a low-intensity, short-duration involuntary outpatient commitment program.

This study examined the outcomes of patients in a low-intensity, short-duration involuntary outpatient commitment program. After release from inpatient commitment, one group (N = 150) entered an involuntary outpatient commitment program that lasted up to six months; a comparison group (N = 140) was released into the community without further involuntary care. After the analysis adjusted for confounding variables, patients who were in the involuntary outpatient commitment program had greater use of follow-up outpatient and residential services and psychotropic medications than patients in the comparison group. No differences were found between the groups in follow-up acute psychiatric hospitalization or arrests. Low-intensity, short-duration involuntary outpatient commitment appears to have a limited, but important, impact.