**Published in Progress in Community Health Partnerships (PCHP) 18.3. All rights reserved.**
ABSTRACT
Background: Individuals experiencing opioid use disorder (OUD) and co-occurring mental health concerns experience heightened consequences and lower rates of treatment access. Engaging patients as research partners alongside health systems is critical for tailoring care for this population.
Objectives: Collaborative care is promising for the treatment of co-occurring disorders, but there is little research incorporating patient perspectives into its design.
Methods: We utilized the Community-Participatory Partnered Research (CPPR)1 approach to partner with patients, providers, and clinic administrators to adapt and implement a collaborative care intervention for co-occurring disorders in primary care. We conducted qualitative interviews with patients to assess their feedback on the proposed collaborative care model prior to intervention implementation. A first round of interviews was conducted to obtain patient feedback on our adaptation ideas (n=11). The team then incorporated these suggestions and beta-tested the intervention with additional participants (n=9) and assessed their feedback. Data were analyzed using rapid content analysis and then implemented by health systems.
Results: Patient feedback underscored the need for the care coordinator (CC) to be trained in patient engagement and stigma reduction and to provide assistance around socioeconomic barriers and relapse. Patients shared that it was helpful to have the CC address co-occurring disorders, emphasized the need for the CC to be flexible, and expressed that telehealth was acceptable. Patient feedback was integrated in subsequent CC training with health systems.
Conclusions: The present research demonstrates the feasibility and utility of incorporating patient perspectives into treatment design and implementation in health systems using CPPR.