For 20 years, the AIMS Center has supported diverse healthcare organizations to integrate behavioral health services into medical settings. We’ve learned some things along the way! To celebrate our 20th Anniversary, we will be sharing our insights. Stay tuned each month throughout 2024 as we publish monthly Lessons Learned. Sign up for AIMS Center updates …

A recording of the Whole Person Care through Pediatric Collaborative Care webinar is below or slide handouts can be downloaded here. This is a continuation of our quarterly webinar series, sign up for our mailing list to stay informed of future webinars and events hosted by the AIMS Center. This webinar detailed the fundamental aspects of …

3rd Annual Integrated Care Conference Cultivating Integrated Care within the Behavioral Health Ecosystem June 7, 2024 | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, PST June 6, 2024 | 1:00 PM – 6:45 PM  PST Location: DoubleTree by Hilton, Seattle, WA Register Today Join a community of partners to share ideas, and learn about clinical and community-level innovations …

Comparative Effectiveness of Psychotherapy vs Antidepressants for Depression in Heart Failure: A Randomized Clinical Trial examined the effectiveness of Behavioral Activation (BA) vs antidepressant medication management (MEDS) in patients with heart failure from 2018-2022. The study was published in January 2024 and results showed that both BA and MEDS reduced patients’ depressive symptoms by nearly …

Extending the Clinical Impact of Behavioral Health Prescribing Clinicians Using the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) was published February 2024 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM). This article evaluated if CoCM could extend the reach of prescribing clinicians, allowing them to treat more patients than they could on their own in the same amount of time, …

The AIMS Center is excited to announce a partnership with Premera Blue Cross to improve behavioral health outcomes for Black and/or African American communities. Three Pacific Northwest clinics, two that serve oncology patients and one that serves pediatric patients, will implement Collaborative Care with support from the AIMS Center. The goal of this investment is …

The Enhancing Perinatal Health through Collaborative Care webinar recording is now available. This webinar examined the fundamental aspects of providing a population health focus to team-based care for expectant and postpartum individuals. Participants learned about the impact of Collaborative Care (CoCM) on mental health during pregnancy and postpartum. The discussion focused on adaptations of Collaborative Care …

Collaborative Care (CoCM) shown to achieve comparable or better depression outcomes in rural clinics that treat low-income patients. 

WATCH: Advocacy for Collaborative Care (CoCM) Webinar Recording. This webinar highlighted the landscape of CoCM in the United States. Panelists described efforts to advance the knowledge, use, and fidelity of CoCM. Examples were provided of state systemic change as well as health insurers' initiatives to advance CoCM. Additionally, an overview of federal policies and laws currently in place was shared, followed by panelists describing their state and organization’s efforts to promote new legislation and policies.

WATCH: Treating Substance Use in Collaborative Care (CoCM) Webinar. This webinar highlighted considerations for identifying and treating substance use disorder(s) in primary care utilizing CoCM. The panelists described research, implementation strategies, tools and processes that are successful in working with patients who have a substance use disorder. This discussion was followed by participant Q&A. 

WATCH: Registry Innovations in Collaborative Care Webinar. This webinar included an overview of important considerations when choosing a population-based registry tool, a panelist discussion, and Q&A. Panelist highlighted the process their organizations underwent to implement a population-based registry tool that facilitates Collaborative Care at a patient and program level.

After training with the AIMS Center, Columbia County Health System in Dayton, WA has built a robust behavioral health program that makes resourceful use of telepsychiatry. Read more about the care model and barriers to behavioral health access in rural communities. 

WATCH: Sharing the Responsibilities of the BHCM in CoCM Webinar, featuring panelists discussing how they set up their workflows, including the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned during the process. This is a continuation of our quarterly webinar series, a recording of the webinar can be found below, and slide handouts can be downloaded here.

WATCH: Webinar on Billing CoCM codes, featuring three health system panelists describing their CoCM billing workflows – including benefits, challenges, and lessons learned. This webinar kicked off our new quarterly webinar series, a recording of the webinar can be found below, and slide handouts can be downloaded here.

The power of CoCM was testified to by Anna Ratzliff  before the US Senate Committee on Finance, highlighting its ability to leverage scarce psychiatric resources to treat a large number of patients in primary care and to get more patients better faster than usual primary care, even when usual care includes embedded psychotherapists.