Health Care Assistants in Primary Care Depression Management: Role Perception, Burdening Factors, and Disease Conception
Ann Fam Med Gensichen et al.
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The Article in Brief
Health Care Assistants in Primary Care Depression Management: Role Perception, Burdening Factors, and Disease Conception
Jochen Gensichen
, and colleagues
Background With health care assistants (HCAs) playing an increasingly prominent role in primary care practices, researchers in Germany sought to understand how HCAs who provide case management for depressed patients felt about their new and expanded roles.
What This Study Found HCAs found their case management work personally and professionally enriching. They also, however, experienced limited capacity for the increased workload and the challenges that came with working with depressed patients.
Implications
- Before shifting depression case management to HCAs, practices should appropriately train future case managers for the job, clearly define case management tasks to prevent overburdening, acknowledge the increased workload associated with these tasks, and provide additional financial compensation for the new responsibilities.
