Chapter 2.The Collaborative Care Team in Action

The core principles of effective collaborative care (CC) were introduced in Chapter 1 (“Evidence Base and Core Principles”): 1) patient--centered care, 2) evidence-based care, 3) measurement-based treatment to target, 4) population-based care, and 5) accountable care, and they serve as a guide for determining the essential ingredients of these integrated programs. The mnemonic TEMP-A (for team-based, evidence-based, measurement-based, population-based, and accountable) can be helpful in remembering the core principles and serve as a compass to guide development and successful implementation of collaborative care. This chapter will demonstrate how these principles are put into action in the primary care setting, while adding at least two new team members to the traditional primary care lineup: a care manager or behavioral health provider (BHP) and a consulting psychiatric provider. The tasks of these new team members will be more fully described later; however, their presence enables the primary care team to better recognize and adequately treat the behavioral health conditions that have historically been overlooked and inadequately treated in primary care settings. This enhanced team can provide immediate access to behavioral health treatment and reach a greater population of patients, which can lead to a significant (positive) impact on public health.