Project ECHO

The Model

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a teleconsultation model designed for common diseases that, like psychotic disorders, have a high public health impact, require complex management, and for which clinical expertise is limited. Project ECHO seeks to increase the capacity for local clinicians to provide safe, effective, and evidence-based treatment to underserved clinical populations in their own communities. The model allows our implementation team at the University of Washington to more effectively target agencies in remote areas and allow them to have videoconferencing capabilities (via Zoom) that will help to facilitate remote consultation. Since many providers are located in rural areas of Washington State, this enhanced capability to improve access to CBTp to remote regions is vitally important.

CBTp ECHO seeks to facilitate a community of statewide expertise and a CBTp provider network. While 12 CBTp consultation sessions are recommended to successfully complete the formal course of CBTp consultation, providers are welcome to join CBTp ECHO Clinics via Zoom after they complete their 12 sessions to continue their learning, receive consultation on a new challenging case, or receive consultation on CBTp supervision-related questions. Having these “knowledge networks” reduces professional isolation, which has various downstream effects for clients, clinicians, and agencies. This model fosters “learning loops,” whereby CBTp trainers-in-training learn by doing, learn by teaching, and continue to learn from experts.

Core Components of Project ECHO for CBTp

For more information, visit: http://echo.unm.edu/about-echo/