Darlene 

                                Interactive and Collaborative Care
How health-care teams can achieve therapeutic goals for individual clients

     Often, psychologists, physicians, and other health care providers have a common patient’s care. According to Babiker et al. (2014), a team work that is effective is globally recognized as a vital tool to construct a more efficient healthcare system that is patient-centered. It is essential to note that a capable health care team is not necessarily a multidisciplinary team, but it may comprise of a single profession group. For the health care teams to achieve therapeutic goals, they need to work collaboratively with the patients and the caregivers in consideration with the patients’ preferences. They also need to be accountable and responsible. As a team, the members need to communicate with each other and merge their skills, observations and decision-making tasks to heighten the patient’s care.

How it supports health literacy

      When there is collaboration in the health care, knowledge is shared and skills passed from one member to another member of the group. The patients learn different ways of alleviating and controlling many of the medical problems that can lead to medical care. The literacy levels increase in all the team members and every individual draws a degree of knowledge from each other.

Factors that might lead to failure of the Interactive Care/Collaborative Care

     Several factors may lead to the failure of the collaborative care model include the following:
i Ineffective participations of patients in community programs.
ii Insufficient support for the improvement of the health system.
iii Undefined roles and tasks, among team members in the delivery system design.
iv Untimely reminders for patients, and providers within the clinical information systems.

     When care services are not timely reimbursed, this may lead to bad debts and stalling of the projects already being undertaken (Auxier & Farley, 2011). When stakeholders fail to accept the value of the CC/IC model, the deliverables in the planned strategies fail to be realized. When there is a deficiency of awareness of the clinical capabilities of some team members, their skills are not fully utilized. When support services are not integrated within the practice, the whole model might fail due to missing essential services. To address the identified issues, the team needs to establish proper mechanisms to ensure that the stakeholders fully get informed of the value of the CC/IC model. There should be a system where the team members are appraised to know their competencies and given duties that best suite them. The financial functions of the teams should be robust to ensure that reimbursements are adequately and timely done.

     The methods of targeted intervention and education for primary care providers include the following:
i Transfer of information through the dissemination of educational materials.
ii Formal continuous medical education through seminars, conferences, workshops, lectures, and educational meetings.
iii Academic educational outreach visits are done by a trained person in an interactive way.
iv Local educationally influential opinion leaders.
v Reminders that are either manual or computerized, to prompt performance of clinical actions.

Ways in which the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Code of Conduct are utilized in guiding decisions

     The APA code of conduct provides six principles that guide professionals, especially psychologists, in the conduct of their scientific and professional work, to improve individual and societal conditions. These principles can guide decision making in complex situations in the CC/IC models. As provided by the APA (2017), the main principles include; Aptitude, honesty, scientific and expert accountability, esteem for the dignity and rights of others, concerns for other’s welfare, and societal accountability.

     High standards of competence are required in the in the work of caregivers. Boundaries should be recognized depending on specific competencies and expertise limitations. They should only provide those services, and utilize the techniques for which they qualify through training, experience or education. On integrity, the caregivers should be honest, accord respect and fairness to others. The participants in the collaborative care need to consult and cooperate to serve the interests of their clients and other service recipients. They should also accord respect, worth, and dignity of all the people they interact. Rights to confidentiality, autonomy, self-determination, and privacy should be respected. Caregivers, psychologists, and physicians should apply and make public their expert knowledge in the process of mitigating human suffering (APA, 2017).

Potential work settings of CC/IC Model and how the Model can provide more job satisfaction

     According to the World Health Organization (2017), integrative care is a probable answer to the growing need for enhanced health outcomes and patients’ experience. The potential work settings of the model are identified by examining different perspectives that shape the model. These perspectives entail the service provider who is required to coordinate tasks, patient care, and services across professional and organizational systems. Another work setting is policymaking where the policymakers design integrated friendly policies, financing, and regulation arrangements, develop necessary care systems and quality standards.

     The professional regulator is mandated to register and monitor integrative care providers, eradicate poor quality and ensure safety on the course of service provision. On the other hand, the management is supposed to create and sustain shared values and culture; monitor shared resources and financing streams, direct shared activities, manage the organizational structures and supervise the staff. The users of the services (cares) experience better access and triangulation across care elements, which includes the sharing of information. In a setting of care evaluation, the evaluator is required to measure the level of integration against the indicators.

     The Collaborative Care/Integrative Care Model can increase employee satisfaction through the following ways;
i Social connectedness where employees are encouraged to socialize with others thereby boosting their work moods.
ii Changing work perceptions to help find more meaning to the job which includes seeing the benefits of the work and feeding it psychologically to oneself.