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Improving access to mental health services via a clinic-wide mental health intervention in a Southeastern US infectious disease clinic
- Authors:
- BOTTONARI Kathryn A., STEPLEMAN Lara M.
- Journal article citation:
- AIDS Care, 22(2), February 2010, pp.133-136.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
A brief psychological consultation model, which aims to improve integration of mental health services into HIV primary care is described. This retrospective article seeks to examine which patients in an adult infectious disease clinic were served by this model in a one-year period. Examining whether the patients who subsequently engage in mental health care differ demographically from the consult population, this study, of 963 patients, indicated that 26.1% (252) of the patients at our Infectious Disease clinic received a mental health consultation. The authors observed no statistically significant differences between the study and clinic populations with respect to gender, age, or race. Moreover, 43.3% of those patients served by the consult model received specialised psychiatric care. There were significant racial differences between those patients who engaged specialty psychiatric care and those who did not after receiving a consultation. While the in-clinic consultation service reached a representative population, there was less success recruiting this diverse patient population into traditional psychiatric care. Future efforts will need to examine how mental health consultation and traditional psychiatric services can best reduce barriers to engagement and retention in care.