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Practices of depression care in home health care: Home health clinician perspectives.
Bao, Y., Eggman, A., Richardson, J., Sheeran, TF., & Bruce, M. (2015). Practices of depression care in home health care: Home health clinician perspectives.Psychiatric Services, 66(12), 1365-1368. https://doi.org/doi:101176/appips201400481
OBJECTIVE:
The study assessed gaps between published best practices and real-world practices of treating depression in home health care (HHC) and barriers to closing gaps.
METHODS:
The qualitative study used semistructured interviews with nurses and administrators (N=20) from five HHC agencies in five states. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed by a multidisciplinary team using grounded theory method to identify themes.
RESULTS:
Routine HHC nursing overlapped with all functional areas of depression care. However, gaps were noted between best and real-world practices. Gaps were associated with perceived scope of practice by HHC nurses, knowledge gaps and low self-efficacy in depression treatment, stigma attached to depression, poor quality of antidepressant management in primary care, and poor communication between HHC and primary care clinicians.
CONCLUSIONS:
Strategies to close gaps between typical and best practices include enhancing HHC clinicians' knowledge and self-efficacy with depression treatment and improving the quality of antidepressant management and communication with primary care.