Integrating personal medicine into service delivery: empowering people in recovery

Illness management and recovery strategies are considered evidence-based practices. The article describes how a web-based application, CommonGround, has been used to support implementation of such strategies in outpatient mental health services and assess its impact. The specific focus of this article is Personal Medicine, self-management strategies that are a salient component of the CommonGround intervention.

With support from counties and a not-for-profit managed care organization, CommonGround has been introduced in 10 medication clinics, one Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, and one peer support center across Pennsylvania. Methods include analysis of data from the application's database and evaluation of health functioning, symptoms, and progress toward recovery.

Health functioning improved over time and use of self-management strategies was associated with fewer concerns about medication side effects, fewer concerns about the impact of mental health medicine on physical health, more reports that mental health medicines were helping, and greater progress in individuals' recovery.

Using Personal Medicine empowers individuals to work with their prescribers to find a "right balance" between what they do to be well and what they take to be well. This program helps individuals and their service team focus on individual strengths and resilient self-care strategies. More research is needed to assess factors that may predict changes in outcomes and how a web-based tool focused on self-management strategies may moderate those factors.