Integrated Care: Key Points

Core principles of effective integrated care include a patient-centered care team providing evidence-based treatments for a defined population of patients using a measurement-based "treat-to-target" approach.

The role of the psychiatrist in a collaborative-care model is a significant departure from traditional psychiatric care, which focuses on face-to-face evaluations. Moving from traditional office-based practice to being "consultant specialists" who can be effective on a population level will require a new skill set.

The first five modules of a training program for psychiatric consultants, developed by the AIMS Center, will be presented at this year's Institute on Psychiatric Services in San Francisco this month.

The model of psychiatric practice within a collaborative-care team is not for every psychiatrist, but those who have experienced it say the model offers an escape from the "hamster wheel" of doing 15-minute med checks, while offering the opportunity to educate fellow clinicians and to have an impact on public health at a population level.