Integrating Care with Care Coordination

This is the reality: the most challenging people to serve are the ones with the most diverse, complex, and interconnected needs, including both physical and mental health conditions.

In the past, we've all delivered the best treatment we can, but we've mostly had to do this from within our own specialty areas of care — whether we're medical providers, substance abuse specialists, mental health professionals, benefits experts, housing specialists, or the emergency room staff that step in when the needs get dire. 

We all know it's not enough. The interconnected web of issues our clients face are too deep and wide-ranging for this approach. Early mortality rates for people with SMI and complex needs are tragic. 

Thankfully, health reform is bringing new funding and system change to support meaningful healthcare integration. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to make inroads and improvements for clients and care systems alike. Collectively, we have the resources to tackle these challenges. And we have the drive, the passion, and the moral imperative to do better. We are now stretching beyond our traditional roles to motivate recovery, save money, and improve outcomes.

Care coordination is a compelling approach because it allows each player in the system of care to continue doing what they do best. It builds trusting, involved, hands-on supports around the people we serve, so they can not only envision a healthier future for themselves, they can successfully move toward the lives they want.

Click here to learn what care coordination looks like at Telecare. And look for next month's newsletter, when we'll share a profile of our care coordination pilot program with Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) in Riverside, California.