Impacting late life depression: integrating a depression intervention into primary care

Care for depression in late life is often less successful in primary care than in carefully controlled clinical trials. Collaborative care models attempt to integrate mental health services into primary care. The authors conducted two focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with all Depression Clinical Specialists (DCSs) working with Project IMPACT (Improving Mood: Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment), a study testing a collaborative care intervention for late life depression, to examine integration of the intervention model into primary care. DCSs described key intervention components, including supervision from a psychiatrist and a liaison primary care provider, weekly team meetings, computerized patient tracking, and outcomes assessment tools as effective in supporting patient care. DCSs discussed details of protocols, training, environmental set-up, and interpersonal factors that seemed to facilitate integration. DCSs also identified research-related factors that may need to be preserved in the real world. Basic elements of the IMPACT model seem to support integration of late life depression care into primary care. Research-related components may need modification for dissemination.