Innovation details
Through CPIC, diverse safety net providers working together to a technical assistance model were compared through a rigorous randomized trial involving over 1000 depressed clients drawn from 93 healthcare and community-based programs. The clients were primarily African American and Latino, the majority met federal poverty criteria and had multiple chronic medical conditions, nearly half were uninsured and at high risk for being homeless and many had substance abuse problems.
The diverse safety net providers working together model
A model to bring together agency leaders and community members from diverse sectors of the community including mental health, primary care, public health, substance abuse, homeless-serving, other social services, and “trusted locations” like faith-based programs, community centers and hair salons. This collaboration is supported through 4 months of planning to review evidence-based approaches to improve depression services and outcomes, fit those programs to their agencies and community and create a network across agencies to provide more comprehensive support. The key feature of the approach is community engagement, with equal power sharing and authority in the planning process, to develop an evidence-based toolkit for depression. The planning is followed by training as directed and supervised by the community planning group, comprising strong community leaders and clinical experts.
The technical assistance model
A model focused primarily on healthcare sectors alone, using the same evidence-based toolkits to improve depression services and outcomes. The implementation is based on a technical assistance model, such as would be provided by a disease management consulting firm.
