Collaborative Care Research Network (CCRN)

The Collaborative Care Research Network (CCRN), a sub-network of the AAFP’s National Research Network (NRN), was created so that clinicians from across the country can ask questions and investigate how to make collaborative care work more effectively. The objectives of the CCRN are to support, conduct, and disseminate practice-based primary care effectiveness research that examines the clinical, financial, and operational impact of behavioral health on primary care and health outcomes.

"Collaborative care" is a term used to describe different models of behavioral health in primary care. It is also a comprehensive approach to health that sees no distinction between your mind and body, but rather focuses on your overall health. Integrating mental health services into primary care is one successful avenue for treating the health care of the whole person. When mental health professionals and medical professionals collaborate, studies have shown that not only do people live longer, but they are happier with services and have more positive health outcomes. The demand that an all-inclusive approach to health be addressed together in one facility has prompted much of the movement behind the medical home. Some have argued that without mental health in the medical home, the home is not complete. To this end, it is our hope that through the CCRN we will better integrate mental health services into the Patient-Centered Medical Home.

Patients
Through its vast system of nationwide practices, the CCRN will examine how combining mental health, substance use and physical health services can produce better health outcomes for all patients.

Family Physicians
The CCRN will provide up-to-date information on how behavioral health services can positively affect your practice and your patients’ health.

Behavioral Health Providers
Working with behavioral health providers across the country, the CCRN will give you the opportunity to ask and investigate questions that are important to your practice and the field, while determining the most effective model of collaborative care.

Administrators
The CCRN will assist you in answering the toughest questions about collaborative care, such as:

Benjamin Miller, PsyD - CCRN Administrative Director at benjamin.miller@ucdenver.edu
or
Rodger Kessler, PhD, ABPP - CCRN Research Director at Rodger.Kessler@vtmednet.org


If you are interested in participating in the CCRN please complete the following documents and return them to:

Mindy Spano
AAFP National Research Network
11400 Tomahawk Creek Parkway
Leawood, KS 66211
mspano@aafp.org