Core Principles and Tools for Implementing Collaborative Care toolkit on HIPxChange

Doctor and patient consultationWhile Collaborative Care is a proven solution to this crisis, implementing it in any medical system exposes unexpected challenges. As an implementation group shapes a Collaborative Care model to fit their local environment, there is no systematic method to determine which parts of the model can be modified or where flexibility might undermine success.

Researchers with UW Health and the Primary Care Academics Transforming Healthcare (PATH) group, developed the Core Principles and Tools for Implementing Collaborative Care toolkit that defines a serviceable framework for making implementation decisions to integrate mental health treatment into primary care. When decision-makers agree not just on goals, but on the core principles those goals are based on, all decisions get filtered through a lens of shared values, and fall into one of two categories—”fidelity required” or “flexibility allowed.” This discrete, shared understanding enables anyone involved to ensure decisions have integrity.

View the toolkit