Join us for our next Quarterly Webinar on April 15 at 10 am Pacific Time. Learn how to optimize Collaborative Care by effectively using program metrics. We will provide valuable insights into best practices, tools, and strategies for leveraging data to enhance outcomes, drive decision-making, streamline care coordination, and improve overall service delivery performance. Webinar …

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 …

Patients who reside in rural areas face persistent gaps in behavioral health care. Research shows that Collaborative Care (CoCM) can increase treatment access, but rural settings face unique barriers that make implementing CoCM challenging. Understanding these nuances is critical to successful implementation. The latest research from the AIMS Center offers insights into potential barriers and …

The latest article from The Seattle Times’ Mental Health Project initiative, ‘Why Your Primary Care Doctor Might Ask About Your Mental Health,’ examines the growing movement to integrate mental health care into primary care settings. The authors reference the AIMS Center, which has been at the forefront of the integrated care movement for two decades. …

The AIMS Center supports the recommendations in the Bowman Family Foundation‘s brief, Mounting Evidence that Use of the Collaborative Care Model Reduces Total Healthcare Costs. This May 2024 brief is a comprehensive analysis detailing the cost of implementing the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) across various health systems. The study showcases CoCM’s efficiency and its potential to revolutionize behavioral …

The April 2024 study, Barriers and facilitators to collaborative care implementation within the New York State Collaborative Care Medicaid Program, was conducted by the AIMS Center team, Erin LePoire and Ashely Heald. The AIMS Center has worked with New York State’s Learning Network since 2015 to deliver effective Collaborative Care within clinics across the State. Driven by our desire …

The AIMS Center is partnering with Concert Health in a train-the-trainer implementation strategy to support a rollout of Telepsychiatry Collaborative Care (CoCM) for PTSD and bipolar disorder to 2,700 patients. This initiative, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), will allow the AIMS Center to implement findings from SPIRIT study that telepsychiatry CoCM significantly …

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 …

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.