Collaborative care for mental health and substance use issues in primary health care

Primary care in Canada is considered to be the first point of contact to the health care system for most people.2 Primary health care refers to the organization and delivery of primary care services, and is the subject of extensive reform efforts in Canada to reduce rising health care costs. [...] Relevant to this overview the ten principles emphasize the importance of placing limits on duties and responsibilities of primary care practitioners and improving the accessibility of mental health professionals in primary care settings. [...] The disparity between services offered and degree of specialization are indicative of the demand placed on primary care physicians for mental health and substance use services in combination with a lack of support to provide specialized care. [...] Rationale for Overviews and Narrative Summaries The overviews of reviews and narrative summaries are intended to provide information to aid development of future research projects and policy initiatives, and the spread of effective ideas. [...] Quality of the reviews was assessed using the AMSTAR checklist, a validated measurement tool created to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews.13, 14 The AMSTAR checklist covers 11 domains that assess criteria such as inclusion of a comprehensive literature search, detailed accounting of papers reviewed, assessment of the quality of scientific evidence and presence or absence of c