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What to know about the benefits of care coordination for mental health

As a provider, you understand how interconnected a client’s needs are. Here, we discuss the benefits and challenges of care coordination for mental health.

Ryan DeCook
Ryan DeCook, LCSWTherapist

Care coordination can add immense value to your clinical work by improving impact, efficiency, and ultimately, the growth of your practice. While coordination between providers is often considered optional in the mental health field, well-implemented care coordination leads to improved client outcomes. It is a powerful tool that can benefit your practice and your clients, creating a smoother and more effective clinical experience.

Key takeaways

In this article, the following points will be covered related to mental health care coordination:

  • Definition and overview of care coordination in the context of mental health
  • When care coordination is necessary to implement
  • How care coordination benefits both your practice and your clients
  • Specific elements and benefits of care coordination
  • Potential challenges of care coordination and how you can mitigate those challenges
  • Practical implementation strategies for your practice

What is care coordination?

Care coordination in mental health is an intentional collaboration between healthcare service providers who are serving the same client with shared treatment goals. With the client’s permission, these providers interact, share relevant information, provide progress updates and align treatment plans so that the client receives holistic and cohesive treatment. This type of collaborative care leads to increased efficiency and effectiveness of the delivered services. 

Mental health care coordination centers around the psychiatric disorders and related challenges the client is facing. A common form of this coordination is between a therapist and a provider prescribing psychotropic medications. The sphere of mental health care coordination can also include case managers, other therapists (providing group or couples therapy), providers of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments, or physicians who are managing a medical condition that is impacting mental health. 

Coordination becomes more necessary as a client's acuity and complexity increases. Treatment-resistant depression is one example, as it often requires multiple avenues of treatment. In other situations, socio-economic factors or the ability to access resources may necessitate quality care coordination to help achieve treatment plan goals.

How care coordination can benefit your practice

Choosing to participate in care coordination is beneficial in several ways. It improves client outcomes, builds rapport and engagement with clients, enhances the reputation of your clinical work, and can lead to more client referrals. 

Holistic views of treatment plans

Coordination begins with a more comprehensive, holistic view of treatment. Therapy is just one piece of the puzzle for some clients’ care. When creating a treatment plan, it is vital to include the other aspects of the treatment that go beyond therapy, such as medication management or medical conditions. Communication with psychiatrists or other invested providers should be listed as part of the therapist’s interventions.

Client support and engagement

Care coordination is a client-centered approach. It involves first coordinating with the client to determine their needs, goals, and desires for coordination. Their permission must be obtained, verbally and through signed release of information forms. Make sure you understand your state or institution's policies around sharing PHI. Of course, it is best practice to get consent from your client as well. This level of collaboration with the client often increases the level of support they experience, the resources they can access, as well as their level of engagement in the process, as long as the client is on board. It empowers them to be the main decision maker, while experiencing the coordinated care from multiple professionals, all working on their behalf. 

Timely communication

Coordination relies on effective communication. A well executed care coordination plan leads to enhanced connection between the client and all the involved providers. It can ensure communication is timely and efficient, leading to better results. 

Efficient resource utilization

One major benefit is clear role definition amongst providers. This gives clarity as to what service each provider is offering. It creates clear lanes, reduces overlap, decreases costs, and maximizes the efforts of everyone on the client’s mental health services team. It also reduces the chances that certain client needs will fall through the cracks.

Continuity of care

Well-coordinated care ensures the client experiences more seamless work between different providers — and even levels of care. Proper documentation and HIPAA-compliant information sharing helps maintain a golden thread through a client’s journey that preserves treatment continuity and progress.

Potential challenges that come with care coordination

While care coordination can bring about great benefit, it can also present potential challenges. Barriers such as incongruent communication styles, mismatched schedules, no insurance reimbursement, and client privacy may arise. 

Mitigating these barriers can be accomplished through clear communication and schedule alignment, including recurring meetings at a set time. Developing robust communication protocols and processes can help to define roles, clarify objectives and protect client privacy while facilitating information exchange. Initial meetings can be very effective times to align the team around the goals, roles and processes of the team. It is important to also seek clarification from the client’s insurance provider about reimbursement. 

There can be instances, such as a crisis, where the client needs collaborative care immediately and obtaining written permission from a client is not possible. HIPAA provides some allowance for sharing of health information without consent in these instances as long as there is confirmation of established treatment relationships. This should be treated as a rare instance however because ethically, all professional codes of ethics in the mental health field (NASW, AAMFT, etc) require that consent is obtained before sharing information. A signed release of information should be utilized unless more extreme circumstances demand a different approach that’s in the best interest of the client. 

Practical implementation strategies

Incorporating care coordination into your practice requires thoughtful planning and implementation around several key strategies.

Client-centered approach

Any effective care coordination revolves around the client. They should be the center of the treatment team. Practically this means that the client is dictating the goals of treatment. Every team member is clear on the client’s goals and doing their part to work towards them. The Release of Information (ROI) Form is an important instrument through which the client gives written permission for the coordination team members the permission to communicate and share client information with one another. Without a signed ROI, care coordination is a violation of professional ethics and  may be considered a HIPAA violation. 

As the care coordination unfolds, everything the provider team carries out is with the client’s goals and best interests in mind. The client is involved throughout the process and their feedback is solicited in order to facilitate any necessary adjustments.

Technology and care coordination

Electronic health record (EHR) systems and patient portals that are shared amongst providers on the care coordination team serve as some of the most effective tools for collaboration. These are extensively used in integrated healthcare systems and can give all providers access to the client’s chart and progress notes. This shared access can reduce unnecessary communication. 

In some cases, providers may not share an EHR system. This means other methods of sharing client progress and information need to be obtained, such as HIPAA-compliant messaging tools. Whether or not the EHR system is shared, other technology can facilitate the care coordination, including scheduling tools, video call platforms that support group calls, and HIPAA-compliant document storage systems.

Building effective coordination teams

Coordination teams are aligned around the needs and goals of the client. The different providers who are part of the team each need to have clearly defined roles in how they are serving the client’s needs. Assigning a coordination lead, often the provider who spends the most time with the client, can improve communication flow and group accountability. 

Establishing communication processes and meeting cadence helps to ensure the effectiveness of the group. Coordination teams that achieve the most success are built on open dialogue, respectful space for disagreement, teamwork, and the ultimate prioritization of the client’s goals.

Grow your practice with Headway.

Implementing effective coordination in your practice offers an opportunity to enhance the quality of care and client satisfaction. This can lead to better client outcomes, professional relationships, and growth of your practice. Headway simplifies the process of running a practice, making it easier to focus on quality care. The platform offers tools for documentation, insurance billing, and client-centered communication. By joining Headway, you’ll connect with a network of like-minded professionals who are committed to quality client care.

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