Collaborative care models are an established standard of care for treating combined mental health and chronic medical conditions in acute and primary care medical settings. However, very few interventions exist for the acute injury population transitioning between settings. While peer interventionist programs have been instituted for care delivery in many conditions, they have not yet been comprehensively integrated into acute post-injury interventions. Literature reviews support the need for comparative effectiveness trials of health care system interventions targeting high need injured patients with multiple complex mental health and medical comorbidities who are at risk for fragmented post-injury health service utilization. This study evaluates two readily implementable approaches to the delivery of transitional care for injured patients treated emergently in US trauma care systems. The two approaches to be compared are a multidisciplinary team collaborative care intervention that integrates front-line trauma center staff with peer interventionists to trauma surgical team notification of patient emotional distress with recommended mental health consultation. The collaborative care intervention will be supported by a novel Emergency Department (ED) health information exchange technology platform.
