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Abstract:

• Objective: To summarize the Perfect Depression Care initiative and describe recent work to spread this quality improvement initiative.
• Methods: We summarize the background and methodology of the Perfect Depression Care initiative within the specialty behavioral health care setting and then describe the application of this methodology to 2 examples of spreading Perfect Depression Care to general medical settings: primary care and general hospitals.
• Results: In the primary care setting, Perfect Depression Care spread successfully in association with the development and implementation of a practice guideline for managing the potentially suicidal patient. In the general hospital setting, Perfect Depression Care is spreading successfully in association with the development and implementation of a simple and efficient tool to screen not for suicide risk specifically, but for common psychiatric conditions associated with increased risk of suicide.
• Conclusion: Both examples of spreading Perfect Depression Care to general medical settings illustrate the social traction of “zero suicides,” the audacious and transformative goal of the Perfect Depression Care Initiative.

Citation:

Coffey, M. J. (2015). Perfect Depression Care Spread: The Traction of Zero Suicides. JCOM, 22(3).