Jürgen Unützer IMPACT Program Has Impact on Late Life Depression in California, Reports HealthyCalTh
The IMPACT program (Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment for Late-Life Depression) pioneered by University of Washington geropsychiatrist Dr. Jürgen Unützer uses a team-based approach to depression in adults 60 and over that is led – not by a physician – but a depression care manager. The depression care manager – often a nurse, but sometimes a social worker or psychologist – supervises the depressed patient’s treatment, providing education and support, and also acts as a liaison with the other two team members in the triumvirate: The patient’s primary care physician, and a designated psychiatrist. “We have gotten, by far, more requests for training in IMPACT care from California than any other state in the country,” he says. Kaiser Permanente’s version of IMPACT – Complete Care Depression – is used at all of its 37 medical centers, and has so far helped over 50,000 depressed patients.
Read the full article here.
The IMPACT program (Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment for Late-Life Depression) pioneered by University of Washington geropsychiatrist Dr. Jürgen Unützer uses a team-based approach to depression in adults 60 and over that is led – not by a physician – but a depression care manager. The depression care manager – often a nurse, but sometimes a social worker or psychologist – supervises the depressed patient’s treatment, providing education and support, and also acts as a liaison with the other two team members in the triumvirate: The patient’s primary care physician, and a designated psychiatrist. “We have gotten, by far, more requests for training in IMPACT care from California than any other state in the country,” he says. Kaiser Permanente’s version of IMPACT – Complete Care Depression – is used at all of its 37 medical centers, and has so far helped over 50,000 depressed patients.
Read the full article here.
