Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Health Services and Policy Research

Family physicians are major providers of mental health care, either alone or in consultation with other mental health professionals. A person with mental illness may need a range of specialist services including psychiatrist consultations, inpatient admission and emergency support. However, disruptions in the communication between the primary care physician and providers of specialty care may compromise safety and quality as individuals move across the continuum of care. Development of quality indicators of the information flow between primary and mental health professionals is a concrete strategy for supporting system improvement related to informational continuity. The proposed planning study will produce a draft framework of evidence-based domains and items related to successful information exchanges. It will also summarize transfer barriers and facilitators, and the expected impact of successful and failed transfers on care quality. This material will be reviewed at a final meeting of decision makers and researchers to plan a larger grant proposal to finalize and field test indicators of informational continuity between primary and mental health care.