FLOW: Early results from a clinical demonstration project to improve the transition of patients with mental health disorders back to primary care

Evaluation of the Implementation of the FLOW Program for Increasing Access to Mental Health Care

The FLOW program was designed to facilitate appropriate and safe transitions of patients from specialty mental health (SMH) to primary care (PC) as a method of improving access and reducing appointment burden on veterans who have improved or remitted. In this study, the team evaluated the implementation of FLOW across nine Veterans Affairs (VA) sites using a mixed-methods evaluation in a cluster-randomized stepped wedge trial design. Outcome assessments used data from VA databases, dashboards, and semi-structured interviews and were guided by the Reach, Adoption, Effectiveness, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Across the sites, mean level reach was 1.36% of all specialty mental health patients transitioned to primary care (standard deviation [SD] = 1.05). Mean provider adoption was 10.2% (SD = 8.3%). Approximately 75% of veterans were fully satisfied with their transition and reported shared decision-making in the decision to transition. Rates of transitions did not decrease over the 6-month maintenance period following implementation. These data suggest that FLOW can be successfully implemented and maintained, although there was wide variation in implementation across sites. Future research should examine how to support sites that struggle with implementation.

Care transitions from the specialty to the primary care setting: A scoping literature review of potential barriers and facilitators with implications for mental health care

BACKGROUND, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This scoping review aimed to understand potential barriers and facilitators in transitioning patients from specialty to primary care settings, to inform the implementation of an intervention to promote active consideration of psychiatrically stable patients for transition from the specialty mental health setting back to primary care.

METHODS

Guided by Levac and colleagues' six-stage methodological framework for conducting scoping studies, we systematically searched electronic article databases for peer-reviewed literature from January 2000 to May 2016. We included identified articles that discuss findings related to potential barriers and facilitators in transitioning patients from specialty to primary care settings. We performed descriptive and thematic analyses of results to generate emergent codes and their categorizations.

RESULTS

Our database search yielded 906 unique articles, 23 of which we included in our scoping review. All but one of the included studies were conducted in North America. Identified potential barriers and facilitators spanned eight emergent themes-(i) primary care accessibility, especially in terms of timely availability of appointments, (ii) clarity in respective roles of specialty care and primary care in managing a patient, (iii) timely exchange of information, (iv) transition process management, (v) perceived ability of primary care providers to manage specialty conditions, (vi) perceived ability of patients to self-manage, (vii) leadership support and (viii) support for implementing initiatives to promote transitions.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this scoping review enable an increased understanding of current practices and considerations regarding care transitions from specialty to primary care settings. The importance of role clarification, shared clinical information systems, confidence in care competency, and adequate organizational support to promote appropriate transitions were themes most widely reported across the reviewed studies. Few studies specifically examined the transition from specialty mental health to primary care. Future studies should account for mental health-specific symptomatic patterns and recovery trajectories, such as prevalent chronicity and frequency of relapse, in planning and conducting transitions from specialty mental health back to primary care.

Transitioning patients from outpatient mental health services to primary care: A rapid literature review

Background

A lack of access to mental health services is a critical barrier to obtaining evidence-based care. One strategy to improve access is to transition stable patients out of mental health specialty services and into primary care, thus opening availability for new patients and those with acute mental health needs. To support these transitions, organizations might explore a range of new practices and implementation strategies.

Methods

We conducted a rapid literature review to summarize descriptions from the research literature about practices for transitioning stable patients from outpatient mental health services to primary care, as well as implementation strategies to enhance the adoption and sustainment of these practices. We searched PsycINFO and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) for articles published between January 2000 and August 2019. For articles meeting inclusion criteria, we abstracted data on study characteristics, transition practices, and implementation strategies.

Results

We included 11 articles representing diverse study designs, settings, and health care organizations. Across these articles, we identified six categories of commonly described transition practices, with patient engagement appearing the most frequently (10 articles), followed by shared treatment planning (eight articles), assessment of recovery and stability, care coordination, follow up and support, and medication management (seven articles each). Less frequently, articles included descriptions of implementation strategies, with five articles describing efforts to train and educate stakeholders and four articles describing the use of evaluative and iterative strategies.

Conclusions

We identified descriptions of several common practices to help patients transition from mental health specialty services to primary care, but there are opportunities for an increased focus on implementation strategies to enhance the adoption and sustainment of these transition practices. More research is needed to better understand the effectiveness of specific transition interventions and the feasibility of deploying these interventions in heterogeneous health care settings.