With leadership from CMCD, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan launched a demonstration project to disseminate the CarePartner Program in primary care practices for patients being treated for depression. The depression CarePartner program includes enhancements that tailor a patient’s calling schedule, sending weekly or monthly calls to participants depending on the severity of their symptoms. The program has the ability to connect a patient directly to the suicide hotline, and clinicians can decide what thresholds to use for receiving automatic alerts about patients’ status. More recently, the CarePartner Depression Program has been adopted by the University of Michigan Health System as part of its efforts to promote more patient-centered care. In an evaluation of program outcomes, 84% of participants said that the program helped them to deal more effectively with their depression, and 79% of patients reported that they would use the program again. Additionally, 89% of patients and 98% of informal caregivers said that they would recommend the program to a friend. The depression CarePartner program currently is being evaluated in a NIH-funded randomized trial led by CMCD affiliate, James Aikens, PhD.
Learn more about the CarePartner Program.
For more information, contact Nicolle Marinec at stecn@umich.edu.
Categories:
Depression, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Mobile Health, U-M Health System
