International perspective on integrated care models in child and adult mental health

Abstract

The dearth of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is a global problem. Integrating CAMHS in primary care has been offered as a solution. We sampled integrated care perspectives from colleagues around the world. Our findings include various models of integrated care namely: the stepped care model in Australia; shared care in the United Kingdom (UK) and Spain; school-based collaborative care in Qatar, Singapore and the state of Texas in the US; collaborative care in Canada, Brazil, US, and Uruguay; coordinated care in the US; and, developing collaborative care models in low-resource settings, like Kenya and Micronesia. These findings provide insights into training initiatives necessary to build CAMHS workforce capacity using integrated care models, each with the ultimate goal of improving access to care. Despite variations and progress in implementing integrated care models internationally, common challenges exist: funding within complex healthcare systems, limited training mechanisms, and geopolitical/policy issues. Supportive healthcare policy, robust training initiatives, ongoing quality improvement and measurement of outcomes across programs would provide data-driven support for the expansion of integrated care and ensure its sustainability.

Keywords:

• Child and adolescent mental health
• integrated care
• collaborative care
• global mental health
• access to care

Acknowledgements

Open Access funding is provided by the Qatar National Library.

Disclosure statement

Enric Aragones (EA): In the past 3 years EA has been a consultant to or has received honoraria from Lündbeck, Esteve, and Roche, outside the submitted work. Jeffrey Hunt receives a stipend for an editorial activity for child and adolescent psychopharmacology newsletter from John Wiley Inc. Mandar Jadhav (MJ): Fellowship funded by American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF). He is on the APA Council for Children, Adolescents and their Families through APAF. The stipend supports placement in a US Senator‘s office, with involvement in healthcare, education, and veterans’ affairs legislation. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry No compensation is involved. He is also a Resident Fellow Members‘ Representative on the Extended Executive Committee of the Indo-American Psychiatric Association. No compensation is involved. Shireen Cama is employed by Cambridge Health Alliance, and the rest of the authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.