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Many psychiatric disorders are complex chronic conditions. People suffering these conditions are poorly served by systems designed to provide acute care without coordinated communication, education, self-management skills or quantified outcomes. In this context, potentially beneficial treatments are frequently rendered ineffective, rejected inappropriately, or continued without evidence of benefit.

In the CCI model, patients, doctors and other supports work together using collaborative methods to reach concordance and share decision making.

The quest for better results is a journey personalized by the preferences and experience of the patient. This journey begins with concordance (agreement) about at least one goal and an intervention directed at reaching that goal. To help keep the clinical journey on track, CCI offers a systematic approach using the simple iterative clinical management schema below.

At decision points, the question of whether it is wise for an individual to persist with the current plan or alter course is informed by measure-based guidance and clinical judgment. A menu of reasonable choices is formulated based available knowledge of therapeutics and knowledge of an individual patient’s preferences and response history. The accumulated experience of progress and measured outcomes over the course of decisions enables the collaborators to optimize the management plan.

CCI Clinical Management Schema:

The success of this approach only requires willing skilled collaborators, measures, and a compatible health care system. CCI’s mission is to provide the infrastructure (methods, measures and supporting information) necessary to enable patients to implement collaborative care within most health care systems.

Because no solution fits all patients at all times, the CCI recommends combining this iterative self-correcting approach to treatment with a collaborative care model which prioritizes concordance between patients and care providers. CCI offers practical strategies for management of common problems encountered over the course of bipolar disorder and other chronic psychiatric conditions.

You are invited to join and take advantage of the methods, tools and resources available to CCI members.

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