I1 – Implementation of a Single Session/Brief Intervention Clinic in a Family Medicine Rresidency Primary Care Clinic: A Program Evaluation

Summary

Alaska Family Medicine Residency’s (AKFMR) continuity care clinic, Providence Family Medicine Center (PFMC), is a patient centered medical home located in Anchorage, AK. Identified as one of two safety-net clinics in Anchorage, PFMC primarily serves underserved populations with significant social determinants of health needs and the substantial majority of PFMC’s patients are enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, or are uninsured. Due to insurer and billing challenges in Alaska, patients often experience barriers in their ability to access mental health and/or behavioral health (MH/BH) services. Multiple surveys of PFMC’s providers and clinic staff identified a gap in terms of their patients’ ability to expediently access MH/BH services, despite the integration of BH providers at PFMC. Prior to this study, PFMC offered MH/BH services through BH consultation — where patients are able to meet with a BH provider during their medical visit — and psychotherapy for 8-12 sessions. However, regardless of these services, PFMC was experiencing similar wait-times, with patients waiting 9-12 months to establish services. Given that research has shown a mode of 1 for MH/BH sessions attended by patients, the authors looked into the single-session models as an evidence-based practice to address this gap, and implemented a single-session/brief intervention (SBI) pilot in addition to the current BH services offered. Based on the success of the pilot, the SBI clinic was implemented in full. This presentation will focus on the implementation process as well as a program evaluation of this clinic. The current sample size is n = 97 and will continue to increase over time. The mean and mode sessions attended was 2, and a 77.14% reduction in the number of patients on the waitlist was demonstrated. Preliminary data analysis is being conducted and paired sample t tests will be utilized to analyze scores on screening measures, such as the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, as well as descriptive statistics analysis for the Session Rating Scale and Outcome Rating Scale.