Abstract
This paper describes the status of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Primary Care-Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI) services implementation and presents an assessment of associations between receipt of PC-MHI services and likelihood of receiving a second specialty mental health (SMH) appointment following an initial SMH encounter. The total PC-MHI service recipients and encounters/month rose substantially between October 2007 and April 2011. Adjusting for important covariates, the likelihood of receiving a second SMH encounter within 3 months of an index SMH appointment was 1.37 times greater among individuals who had received a PC-MHI encounter within 3 months of the initial SMH appointment. Implementation of VHA PC-MHI services has substantially increased VHA capacity to deliver mental health services in primary care and findings indicate that PC-MHI services are associated with greater engagement in SMH treatment. Implementation of VHA PC-MHI services is progressing with new technical assistance strategies being deployed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 105-116 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Engagement
- Mental health
- Primary care
- Veterans
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology