Literature Collection

Due to the pervasive shortage of behavioral health (BH) specialists, collaborative partnerships between pediatric primary care practitioners (PPCPs) and BH specialists can enhance provision of BH services by PPCPs. We aimed to create a new model of collaborative care that was mostly virtual, affordable, and scalable. The pilot program was implemented in 18 practices (48 PPCPs serving approximately 150 000 patients) in 2 consecutive cohorts. Outcomes were assessed by administering pre-program and post-program surveys. Across the 18 practices, PPCPs reported significantly increased confidence in their BH knowledge and skills, and significantly increased their provision of target BH services. Barriers to BH service provision (resources, time, and staff) were unchanged. This compact, mostly virtual model of BH collaboration appears to be beneficial to PPCPs while also offering convenience to patients and affordability and scalability to the practice network.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether patients receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST) in general practice cause other patients sufficient distress to change practices--a perceived barrier that prevents general practitioners from prescribing OST. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey of consecutive adult patients in the waiting rooms of a network of research general practices in New South Wales during August-December 2009. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of disturbing waiting room experiences where drug intoxication was considered a factor, discomfort about sharing the waiting room with patients being treated for drug addiction, and likelihood of changing practices if the practice provided specialised care for patients with opiate addiction. RESULTS: From 15 practices (eight OST-prescribing), 1138 of 1449 invited patients completed questionnaires (response rate, 78.5%). A disturbing experience in any waiting room at any time was reported by 18.0% of respondents (203/1130), with only 3.1% (35/1128) reporting that drug intoxication was a contributing factor. However, 39.3% of respondents (424/1080) would feel uncomfortable sharing the waiting room with someone being treated for drug addiction. Respondents were largely unaware of the OST-prescribing status of the practice (12.1% of patients attending OST-prescribing practices [70/579] correctly reported this). Only 15.9% of respondents (165/1037) reported being likely to change practices if theirs provided specialised care for opiate-addicted patients. In contrast, 28.7% (302/1053) were likely to change practices if consistently kept waiting more than 30 minutes, and 26.6% (275/1033) would likely do so if consultation fees increased by $10. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the frequency of stigmatising attitudes towards patients requiring treatment for drug addiction, GPs' concerns that prescribing OST in their practices would have a negative impact on other patients' waiting room experiences or on retention of patients seem to be unfounded.