Minnesota Community Measurement and Minnesota Health Action Group New Online Resource Supports Recovering from Depression

A new online toolkit is available to help fight depression by delivering resources designed to improve collaboration between patients and health care providers.

Called the Help and Healing toolkit, this resourceprovides treatment guidance for professionals and easy-to-use resources to assist in depression recovery. The goal is to help people who have depression get better, faster by fostering collaboration between patients and providers. The toolkit includes patient and provider talking points, treatment planning, self-management techniques, and information to help providers measure treatment outcomes.

This new resource represents a collaborative effort between MN Community Measurement, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care through public reporting and measurement, and the Minnesota Health Action Group, a non-profit coalition of public and private employers looking to improve the value of the health care system in Minnesota, by focusing on higher quality, lower cost and better health outcomes.

The Help and Healing project was developed by a working group of clinicians and related experts, including patient advocates and employer representatives. The materials have been used and proven successful in Minnesota clinics, and were reviewed and approved by the team of experts.

MN Community Measurement has reported data on depression outcomes since 2009. Since then, the Minnesota Health Action Group’s pay-for-performance program, Minnesota Bridges to Excellence, has recognized 97 clinics throughout the state for meeting or exceeding the guidelines for optimal treatment of depression.

Help & Healing can be accessed at MNHealthScores.org/helpandhealing.

This project was made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, the foundation’s signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in targeted communities throughout the country.

About MN Community Measurement
MN Community Measurement (MNCM.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of health care in Minnesota by publicly reporting quality results at .

About the Minnesota Health Action Group
The Minnesota Health Action Group is a coalition of private and public health care purchasers. The mission of the organization is to improve the value of the health care system in Minnesota, driving for higher quality, lower cost and better health outcomes. Visit .