Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jul 24:5:2377960819861862.
doi: 10.1177/2377960819861862. eCollection 2019 Jan-Dec.

Treatment of Depression in Integrated Care: Implementation of the Nurse Care Manager

Elizabeth G Adams  1
Affiliations

Treatment of Depression in Integrated Care: Implementation of the Nurse Care Manager

Elizabeth G Adams. SAGE Open Nurs. .

Abstract

The collaborative care model is an effective model for improving depression symptoms in patients in a primary care (PC) setting. An essential role in this model is the care manager (CM), and nurses have been effective in this role. However, there remains a question of how to best design, train, and implement this nurse CM role in PC. The purpose of this review is to provide readers with a critical description of what processes for training and implementation of a collaborative nurse CM role have been be successful in the literature, specifically as it pertains to supporting patients with depression and chronic medical illnesses in an integrated PC setting. A literature review of PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Scopus, and the Cochrane Collaborative was conducted in October 2018. Successful nurse CM interventions have included regular patient follow-up, symptom check-in, treatment monitoring, goal setting, and education. Psychological support techniques such as Problem-Solving Therapy, behavioral activation, and motivational interviewing have been useful in supporting patient care-plan engagement and goal achievement. Nurse CM training should support the successful implementation of the designed role. Nurse CMs have an opportunity to significantly impact depressive outcomes of patients with depression and long-term health conditions. Further research is needed to explore the potential that this nursing role has as well as how to best operationalize this role.

Keywords: anxiety; business concepts; case management; chronic illnesses; depression; mental health; practice; primary care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Search results. The search was conducted in October 2018, using search terms collaborative care, care manage*, nurs*, depress*, care, manage*, and primary care. CINAHL = Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature; CM = care manager; PICO(T) = Patient population; Intervention; Comparison intervention; Outcome; Time frame (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions Center. (n.d.). Principles of collaborative care. Retrieved from https://aims.uw.edu/collaborative-care/principles-collaborative-care.
    1. American Psychological Association, & Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (2016) Dissemination of integrated care within adult primary care settings: The collaborative care model. Retrieved from https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/integrated-care-models/APA-APM-Dissem....
    1. Archer J., Bower P., Gilbody S., Lovell K., Richards D., Gask L., Coventry P. (2012) Collaborative care for depression and anxiety problems. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 10: CD006525 doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006525.pub2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Askerud A., Conder J. (2017) Patients' experiences of nurse case management in primary care: A meta-synthesis. Australian Journal of Primary Health 23(5): 420–428. doi:10.1071/PY17040. - PubMed
    1. Björkelund C., Svenningsson I., Hange D., Udo C., Petersson E.-L., Ariai N., Westman J. (2018) Clinical effectiveness of care managers in collaborative care for patients with depression in Swedish primary health care: A pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial. BMC Family Practice 19: 28 doi:10.1186/s12875-018-0711-z. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources