The Right Question Project-Mental Health: An Intervention to Increase Engagement and Retention in Mental Health Care

The intervention is one of two Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) projects from the University of Puerto Rico-Cambridge Health Alliance Research Center of Excellence (UPR-CHA RCE). The overall goal of the project is to evaluate an intervention that teaches patients a set of skills needed to facilitate a more active patient role in the mental health encounter, emphasizing the patient's decision-making process during mental health treatment. The project also aims to support collaborative provider-patient relationships in order to increase engagement and retention and, consequently, reduce service disparities. The intervention has been pilot-tested in the Right Question Project-Mental Health I (RQP-MH I) study (Alegría, 2008), conducted as part of the UPR-CHA EXPORT Center from September 2004 through February 2006.

The first aim of the current project is to conduct a multi-site randomized controlled trial to test the Patient Activation and Self-Management (PASM) intervention, also called RQP-MH II, in predominantly Latino mental health clinics. The investigators will assess the intervention's impact on engagement and retention in mental health care. The second aim is to explore the racial/ethnic differences in the effect of the RQP-MH II intervention for Latinos as compared to non-Latino whites, as little is known about the impact of patient race/ethnicity on the effectiveness of patient activation interventions. The fourth aim is to explore the role of patient-provider communication and therapeutic alliance as mediators of the relationship between patient activation and engagement and retention in care. It is expected that increased patient-provider communication and a stronger therapeutic alliance will result from increased participation in the decision-making process. These potential changes in the process of care are expected to consequently increase patient engagement (keeping scheduled appointments) and retention (reduction of premature unilateral termination) in mental health care.

Data shows that patients may not readily state their concerns in their medical visits (Roter et al., 1997; Korsch, Gozzi & Francis, 1968) and usually refrain from engaging in information-seeking (Beisdecker & Beisdecker, 1990). Minority patients are even less likely than their white counterparts to have a collaborative relationship with providers (Cooper-Patrick et al., 1999). This is a problematic situation particularly for minority patients, such as Latinos, who cherish maintaining a warm personal connection with their providers (American Medical Association, 1994) and may worry that bringing up questions or asking for explanations might jeopardize the relationship.

Minority patients may not be as informed about diagnosis, prognosis, and medication side effects (Schaafsma, Raynor & de Jong-van den Berg, 2003) and consequently feel disappointed that they do not receive needed information (Levinson et al., 1993). They may therefore be less compliant with treatment (Kalichman et al., 1999), and more likely to drop out of care (Takeuchi et al., 1992). Minority patients may have a less comprehensive understanding of mental health care compared to White patients (Miranda and Cooper, 2004). As a result, they are at a greater risk of assuming that the provider's decisions reflect their best interest (Flynn et al., 2004). This is exemplary of Latinos who hold traditional role expectations that oppose active involvement in the clinical encounter and prefer to delegate decisions about their care to their providers (Levinson et al., 2005; Xu, Borders & Arif, 2003).

To contend with difficulties in communication, most interventions focus on provider training (Post, Cegala & Miser, 2002), with less attention on teaching patients how to effectively express their concerns and questions to their providers (Andersen & Sharpe, 1991; Roter, 1977). Yet results from assessments of self-management of chronic conditions (Hall, Roter & Katz, 1988; Stewart et al., 1993) indicate that greater patient activation and self-management in treatment can augment satisfaction with care (Blanchard et al., 1990), improve the health care process (Rosenberg, Lussier & Beaudoin, 1997; Epstein et al., 1993), ensure the receipt of guideline concordant treatments (Clever et al., 2006), and potentially enhance health outcomes (Kaplan, Greenfield & Ware, 1989).