Patient self-management in the primary care treatment of depression

Efforts to improve primary care treatment of depression incorporate elements of the chronic illness care model, including patient self-management strategies. Case studies, focus groups and the literature suggest six key components of depression self-management programs: (1) implement behavioral change interventions, (2) plan for crisis and relapse prevention, (3) re-establish personal meaning, (4) attend to patients' experience, context and community, (5) build a patient-clinician partnership and (6) create an integrated, self-management support structure. Successful implementation of these components is facilitated by (1) the care system's collective and empathic understanding of the disease itself; (2) sufficient time; (3) adequate funding and (4) robust clinical information systems.