Weekly Tidbit #9 -- Setting the Stage for Collaborative Care, and Assessing Progress

by Paul Uhlig

Tomorrow, December 1, the collaborative care team in San Antonio will be devoting an entire day together, reflecting on their past year of implementing collaborative care. Part of their reflection will be guided by two inventories that were developed to help teams with this important work.

This week's Tidbit invites you to use these inventories to reflect about your own care environment, in the same way the San Antonio team will be doing.

One of the inventories is called the Collaborative Care Activation Inventory (CCAI). The items in the activation inventory are "preconditions" that can intentionally be put in place to help support the development of collaborative care. If present, these preconditions are believed to make the emergence of collaborative care more likely.

The CCAI inventory is a guide for action, helping teams recognize and strengthen any preconditions that may be missing or underdeveloped in their care environment. The Social Field Model of Collaborative Care emphasizes the importance of these preconditions for implementing collaborative care -- put them in place, then believe/trust/know that collaborative care is highly likely to emerge. If these preconditions are not present, other well intentioned actions such as team training, safety initiatives, and similar efforts to improve team-based care are not as likely to have a lasting impact.

The other inventory is called the Collaborative Care Resource Inventory (CCRI). This inventory was developed to help care teams assess progress toward collaborative care by looking at the development of socially constructed "resources" in their social field. You can think of these resources as team-level capabilities for collaborative care that develop over time as a care team becomes progressively able to work well together. The resources assessed by this inventory were identified by interviews with highly developed collaborative care teams, and seem to be hallmarks of exceptional collaborative care.

In other words, and, to use a garden metaphor -- the Activation Inventory (CCAI) offers guidance about how to plant your garden (prepare your environment for collaborative care), and the Resource Inventory (CCRI) helps you assess the beauty and bounty of what you are producing there.

Both inventories can be downloaded using the links below, and are also available on the Collaborative Care Alliance website at www.createbettercare.org

Collaborative Care Activation Inventory (CCAI)
Collaborative Care Resource Inventory (CCRI)