TY - JOUR
AU - L. Efstathopoulou
AU - J. Mackenzie
AU - R. Cameron
AU - A. P. Wagner
AU - J. Jones
AU - J. Perez
A1 - 
AB - OBJECTIVES: Community mental healthcare requires the collaboration of multiple services to meet the needs of local populations. Accessing mental health care in England often involves the collaboration of primary and secondary healthcare services. This paper presents the findings from an evaluation of 'boundary spanning' processes and practitioner roles aiming to reduce service fragmentation and improve access to mental healthcare. METHODS: Forty-one qualitative interviews with professionals across local healthcare providers were conducted in Peterborough (East England) to assess the impact of boundary spanning processes and practitioner roles and were analysed thematically. RESULTS: Structured boundary spanning processes and professional roles were found to facilitate communication and knowledge exchange between primary and secondary mental healthcare services, leading to optimisation of GPs' decisions about individuals' treatment pathways, and to improvements in service accessibility. Yet, effectiveness was reported as conditional on GPs' engagement, as well as the decentralised structure of primary care settings. CONCLUSION: Community mental healthcare organisations could utilise boundary spanning interventions to flex organisational barriers between primary and mental healthcare and optimise accessibility of service users to mental health services. Boundary spanning processes and professional roles can be used to inform national and local care integration strategies.
AD - Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Fulbourn, UK.; Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK.; NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England, Cambridge, UK.; Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.; Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
AN - 40405450
BT - Int J Health Plann Manage
C5 - Education & Workforce
DA - May 22
DO - 10.1002/hpm.3949
DP - NLM
ET - 20250522
JF - Int J Health Plann Manage
LA - eng
N2 - OBJECTIVES: Community mental healthcare requires the collaboration of multiple services to meet the needs of local populations. Accessing mental health care in England often involves the collaboration of primary and secondary healthcare services. This paper presents the findings from an evaluation of 'boundary spanning' processes and practitioner roles aiming to reduce service fragmentation and improve access to mental healthcare. METHODS: Forty-one qualitative interviews with professionals across local healthcare providers were conducted in Peterborough (East England) to assess the impact of boundary spanning processes and practitioner roles and were analysed thematically. RESULTS: Structured boundary spanning processes and professional roles were found to facilitate communication and knowledge exchange between primary and secondary mental healthcare services, leading to optimisation of GPs' decisions about individuals' treatment pathways, and to improvements in service accessibility. Yet, effectiveness was reported as conditional on GPs' engagement, as well as the decentralised structure of primary care settings. CONCLUSION: Community mental healthcare organisations could utilise boundary spanning interventions to flex organisational barriers between primary and mental healthcare and optimise accessibility of service users to mental health services. Boundary spanning processes and professional roles can be used to inform national and local care integration strategies.
PY - 2025
SN - 0749-6753
ST - Improving Collaboration Between Primary and Secondary Mental Healthcare via Boundary Spanning: Evaluation of a New Joined-Up Community Mental Healthcare Model in England
T1 - Improving Collaboration Between Primary and Secondary Mental Healthcare via Boundary Spanning: Evaluation of a New Joined-Up Community Mental Healthcare Model in England
T2 - Int J Health Plann Manage
TI - Improving Collaboration Between Primary and Secondary Mental Healthcare via Boundary Spanning: Evaluation of a New Joined-Up Community Mental Healthcare Model in England
U1 - Education & Workforce
U3 - 10.1002/hpm.3949
VO - 0749-6753
Y1 - 2025
ER -