The Physical Health Care Fidelity Scale: Psychometric Properties.

Mental health programs need an instrument to monitor adherence to evidence-based physical health care for people with serious mental illness. The paper describes the Physical Health Care Fidelity Scale and study interrater reliability, frequency distribution, sensitivity to change and feasibility. Four fidelity assessments were conducted over 18 months at 13 sites randomized to implementation support for evidence-based physical health care. We found good to excellent interrater reliability, adequate sensitivity for change, good feasibility and wide variability in fidelity across sites after 18 months of implementation. Programs were more successful in establishing Policies stating physical health care standards than in implementing these Policies. The Physical Health Care Fidelity Scale measures and guides implementation of evidence-based physical health care reliably.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03271242.

Activating older adults with serious mental illness for collaborative primary care visits.

OBJECTIVE: Persons with serious mental illness frequently receive inadequate medical care and are more likely to experience difficulty navigating the health care system compared with the general population. To address this gap in quality, we developed a program of peer co-led collaborative activation training for primary care (CAT-PC) designed to improve "patient activation" and person-centered care in primary care visits for middle-aged and older adults with serious mental illness and cardiovascular risk. This report presents pilot study feasibility and participant outcomes for CAT-PC. METHOD: A pre-post pilot evaluation of CAT-PC included N = 17 adults (age ≥ 50) with serious mental illness and cardiovascular health risk conditions, and N = 6 primary care providers. CAT-PC consists of 9 weekly peer co-led patient education and skills training sessions and a 45-min video-based training for primary care providers. Pre-post measures included the Patient Activation Measure (PAM), Perceived Efficacy in Patient-Physician Interactions (PEPPI), Autonomy Preference Index (API) for preferred role in primary care encounters, and Social Skills Performance Assessment (SSPA) role-play test for medical visits. RESULTS: All 17 participants attended 5 or more sessions. Post-intervention improvement was found for patient activation and simulated performance of medical visit communication skills. Trends were observed for improved self-efficacy in provider interactions and greater preference for a more collaborative role in decision-making. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: CAT-PC is a brief, peer co-led education and skills training intervention potentially improving patient activation in primary care encounters and providing an important missing component in emerging models of "patient-centered behavioral health homes" for this high-risk group.