The Trauma Collaborative Care Study (TCCS).

Area of Science:

• Trauma care
• Orthopaedic surgery
• Mental health integration

Background:

• Early screening and management of emotional distress and psychological comorbidity can enhance trauma patient care.
• A gap exists in addressing these psychological aspects within trauma center care.
• The Trauma Collaborative Care (TCC) program was developed to fill this gap, utilizing established collaborative care models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the Trauma Collaborative Care (TCC) program.
• To present the design of a multicenter study evaluating the TCC program's effectiveness.
• To assess the TCC program's impact on patient outcomes following major, high-energy orthopaedic trauma.

Main Methods:

• A multicenter study comparing the TCC program with usual care.
• Evaluation involved 6 intervention sites implementing TCC (n=481) and 6 control sites (n=419).
• Outcomes measured include patient-reported function, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Main Results:

• The study hypothesizes that TCC access will lead to reduced rates of poor patient-reported function.
• It is also hypothesized that TCC will decrease rates of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder compared to standard care alone.
• Results will indicate the effectiveness of integrated mental health care in trauma settings.

Conclusions:

• The TCC program offers a structured approach to managing psychological comorbidities in orthopaedic trauma patients.
• The study's findings are expected to demonstrate the benefits of collaborative care models in improving patient outcomes.
• This research aims to establish evidence for integrating mental health services into trauma center protocols.