As mental health concerns have been exacerbated for children and adolescents in the United States by the COVID 19 pandemic, it is more important than ever to expand access to healthcare services. Concert Health launched the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) which is described as follows on the Concert Health website: Collaborative Care an evidence-based model to identify and treat patients with behavioral health conditions, like depression and anxiety, in primary care, women’s health and pediatric settings.
The goal of the Collaborative Care Model is to provide mental healthcare to patients, including children and adolescents, who may not have access to this type of care. In order to assess the effectiveness of this model, JG’s contract with Concert Health is to help evaluate the effectiveness of CoCM by providing data analysis and support in publishing results. There is plenty of research on the efficacy of CoCM from clinical trials, and JG is assisting Concert Health by making meaning of practice level data in order to demonstrate the broader and future implications of Collaborative Care.
Led by JG’s Senior Researcher Karl Vanderwood, The effectiveness of collaborative care delivered via telehealth in a pediatric primary care population was the first paper that JG and Concert Health published together. The research paper, which was published in November 2023, uses data from Concert Health to evaluate the impact of a telehealth collaborative care model for adolescents in pediatric and primary care settings. With this research, the hope is that offering Collaborative Care to adolescents can play a crucial role in addressing the ongoing mental health crisis.