SIMPA

Why ?

The integration of mental health and substance use care into primary care is internationally recognized as an important strategy for improving care experiences and population health outcomes. However, there is no consensus on how to define and measure the concept of "integrated care," which limits our understanding of the current extent of care integration for mental health and substance use problems and hinders quality improvement efforts to strengthen integration within primary care.

Results and Impacts

This exploratory study allowed us to identify 107 instruments developed to measure different aspects of integrating mental health and substance use care into primary care. We classified these instruments into five categories:

Instruments designed to measure providers' knowledge or skills in integrated care
Instruments designed to measure the extent of integrated care
Instruments designed to measure the readiness of providers for integrated care
Instruments designed to measure providers' perceptions of integrated care
Instruments designed to measure the perception of integrated care by service users or families

Research Projects