Trillium In The News
Hospital News
November 2002
Working Together for Better Mental Health
By Sheryl Farrar
Family physicians regularly provide mental health care for
their patients. In fact, evidence shows 35 percent of individuals
suffering from mental health disorders are treated by their
family doctors in a primary care setting. Yet many family
physicians report encountering difficulty in accessing services
and support to provide care for their mental health patients.
Consequently, when the family physicians with privileges
at Trillium Health Centre indicated they would appreciate
an innovate, integrated approach to better care for their
mental health patients, Trillium welcomed the opportunity
to pioneer a shared mental health care program. Trillium
had previously developed a shared mental health care model
with LAMP Community Health Centre, located in Etobicoke,
which had proven quite successful. Following discussions
with other community organizations such as St. Joseph’s
Health Centre in Toronto, the HSO Mental Health Program in
Hamilton, and the Ontario College of Family Physicians, Trillium
developed a model to increase family physicians’s knowledge
and comfort in treating mental health patients, provide patients
with quick access to psychiatric consultations, and improve
mental health providers’ understanding of what is necessary
to support family physicians. Family physicians will also
benefit from rapid access to consultation services and support
from a mental health team.
This pilot, which began in October 2002 and will continue
until June 2003, includes several family physicians and a
clinical team and is supported by Trillium’s Mental
Health System and the Primary Care and Community Health Initiative.
In the shared mental health care pilot, family physicians
are able to refer patients to a team of nurses, social workers,
and a psychiatrist for rapid consultation.
Recommendations made by the team are provided to the family
physician and the mental health team and the physician work
together to link patients to appropriate treatment. While
patients remain in the care of their family physician, the
mental health team is available to advise and assist with
implementation of the recommendations. Physicians will meet
once a month with the mental health team to discuss cases
and learn about advances in mental health such as new medications.
“This project will provide rapid access to consultation
for our patients and will provide backup for us to continue
to manage those patients,” says Dr. Cheryl Hewitt,
a family physician participating in the pilot. “It
is a great advantage to have that support as mental health
care providers and we look forward to working with the team.”
Dr. Suzanne Legault, Trillium’s Chief of Psychiatry
and the participating psychiatrist on the team, says offering
this service will enhance both primary care and mental health
services through better communication and learning opportunities.
Positive evaluation results based on patient and provider
satisfaction, patient outcomes, and physician knowledge and
comfort in handling mental health problems will result in
an effort to expand to all family physicians at Trillium
in the future.
The environment to foster shared care at Trillium began
in 2001, when the Health Centre recognized the need to strengthen
their focus on supporting and promoting improvements in primary
and community care. A planning committee was struck to review
supports for primary care and the result was the creation
of Trillium’s Primary Care and Community Health Initiative.
This initiative consists of 26 action-oriented strategies
to support the role of primary care physicians, strengthen
information and communications, and improve how primary care
and community care are provided.
Trillium’s Primary Care team is currently exploring
new methods of collaboration between primary care physicians
and specialists in several clinical areas including cardiology,
adult diabetes, and geriatrics.
Sheryl Farrar is the Coordinator of the Primary Care and
Community Health Initiative at Trillium Health Centre.
Media Contacts
For all media enquiries, please call Public Relations at 905-848-7580 ext. 3832.
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