Using organizational change strategies to guide peer support technician implementation in the Veterans Administration.

Objective: The Veterans Administration (VA) mental health system is in the process of hiring "Peer Support Technicians" or PSTs-individuals in recovery from serious mental illnesses hired as clinical team members. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate an implementation process that has potential to improve the deployment of the Peer Support Technicians to existing clinical teams within the VA.

Methods: As part of a larger randomized trial called PEers Enhancing Recovery (PEER), research staff collaboratively planned the deployment of PSTs with three case management teams serving those with serious mental illnesses.

Persistent depression and anxiety in the United States: prevalence and quality of care.

Objective: Although effective treatments exist, individuals with depressive and anxiety disorders can remain ill for years. Little is known regarding mental health status and treatment use in this population. This study provided national estimates of the prevalence of persistent depression and anxiety, as well as estimates of illness severity, treatment use, and quality of care in this population.

Information technology to support improved care for chronic illness.

Background: In populations with chronic illness, outcomes improve with the use of care models that integrate clinical information, evidence-based treatments, and proactive management of care. Health information technology is believed to be critical for efficient implementation of these chronic care models. Health care organizations have implemented information technologies, such as electronic medical records, to varying degrees.

Informatics systems to promote improved care for chronic illness: a literature review.

Objective: To understand information systems components important in supporting team-based care of chronic illness through a literature search.

Design: Systematic search of literature from 1996-2005 for evaluations of information systems used in the care of chronic illness.

Measurements: The relationship of design, quality, information systems components, setting, and other factors with process, quality outcomes, and health care costs was evaluated.

Impacting late life depression: integrating a depression intervention into primary care.

groups and semi-structured individual interviews with all Depression Clinical Specialists (DCSs) working with Project IMPACT (Improving Mood: Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment), a study testing a collaborative care intervention for late life depression, to examine integration of the intervention model into primary care. DCSs described key intervention components, including supervision from a psychiatrist and a liaison primary care provider, weekly team meetings, computerized patient tracking, and outcomes assessment tools as effective in supporting patient care. DCSs discussed details of protocols, training, environmental set-up, and interpersonal factors that seemed to facilitate integration.