Presenters
Summary
Complex mental health concerns are often managed within primary care; however, primary care providers (PCP), particularly those working in underserved regions, often have limited resources, training opportunities, and access to specialized mental health supports. To address some of these barriers, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health implemented the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) model.
Project ECHO uses videoconference to build PCP capacity to manage complex patient health concerns through knowledge sharing, dissemination of best practices, and the development of virtual communities of practice. This models requires a significant investment of time, effort, and financial resources to implement and sustain. In order to minimize risk of failure and increase the likelihood of success, the use of evidence-based support for effective implementation is essential.
This poster presentation will: 1) Share findings from a 2018 published study that used key implementation science frameworks to create a set of ECHO specific implementation tools that allow an organization to assess its readiness to implement an ECHO, as well as guidelines to help launch an ECHO; and 2) Provide a description of proposed implementation outcome measures within the context of ECHO Ontario Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto (ECHO-ONMH).
Objectives
- Explain Project ECHO and how it is being used to improve access to mental health care.
- Learn about the adaptation of important implementation science frameworks to support the implementation of ECHO programs.
- Describe approaches to evaluate the implementation success of ECHO programs.
