Su Clinica Familiar

Su Clinica Familiar, a multi-office health clinic in south Texas, uses AHRQ's Effective Health Care guides on antidepressants in caring for patients with adult anxiety and depression. The clinic uses "Choosing Antidepressants for Adults for its clinicians and "Antidepressant Medicines: A Guide for Adults With Depression" for patients.

According to Jonathan Ybarra, LPC, Clinical Care Manager at Su Clinica Familiar, "When the primary care provider prescribes an antidepressant, patient education is vital to medication adherence. Many of our patients believe they can take antidepressant medication as needed rather than as prescribed, can discontinue medication if it's not immediately effective, or discontinue medication as soon as they start to feel better."

"The AHRQ consumer guide, "Antidepressant Medicines: A Guide for Adults With Depression," has helped us to better address many concerns with our patients. But we do not use it as a handout. We use it as a teaching resource: 'Look what it says here about...' or 'If you look here, you can see...' That and the clinician's guide, 'Choosing Antidepressants for Adults,' have helped us keep all our team members on the same page," Ybarra explains.

He continues, "The guides' information on medication costs is critical, because prescriptions that go unfilled because of high cost offer no benefit. The clinician's guide plus AHRQ's 'Comparative Effectiveness of Second-Generation Antidepressants in the Pharmacologic Treatment of Adult Depression' are especially important, given all the questions presently being asked in the public and professional media about evidence supporting antidepressant usage. Confidence is an important, if not essential, ingredient in all effective treatment."

Because many of Su Clinica's patients have limited health literacy, the clinic will also use audio formats of the patient and clinician guides, as well as Spanish versions of the patient guide. Fifty percent of the clinic's adult patients speak Spanish.

Su Clinica has served the Lower Rio Grande Valley for more than 30 years. Among its five locations is the Harlingen, Texas, multispecialty clinic, which incorporates a stand-alone pharmacy and four mini-clinics under one roof. The mini-clinics provide patients with dentistry, internal medicine, women's health, and pediatrics care.

The clinic began providing integrated primary care and mental health care at its Harlingen office in May 2007. This model of care includes a team approach with ongoing collaboration among the primary care provider, a care manager, a consulting psychiatrist, and the patient. This effort is funded by a Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Integrated Health Care Initiative grant.

The clinic is affiliated with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio's Regional Academic Health Center. This teaching partnership gives medical students hands-on experience in addressing challenging health issues along the Texas-Mexico border.

For more information about the clinic, visit http://www.suclinica.org. More information about the Hogg Foundation's Integrated Health Care Initiative is available at http://www.hogg.utexas.edu/initiatives/integrated_health_care.html.

AHRQ's Effective Health Care guides are available at http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm.