Collaborative care models for integrating mental health and primary care

Abstract

Background: Mental health service demands in Ontario often result in long wait times and a lack of access to specialized services. As a result, primary care providers are frequently required to provide mental health care for patients with complex diagnoses despite a lack of support or sufficient training. To address these issues, a shift toward collaborative models of mental health care delivery is occurring. Objective: This paper aims to assess whether evidence-based policy recommendations to improve collaborative mental health care are addressed in the recent Patients First documents. Methods: To achieve this, a qualitative analysis was conducted using NVivo10©. Results: While many of the evidence-based policy recommendations were mirrored in the Patients First documents, very few addressed collaborative mental health care directly. Implications: More research is required to fully understand the effects of the implementation of Patients First on mental health systems and services.