Cornwall

Heart failure is a serious, ongoing condition that often affects patients' mental health. About half of people with heart failure experience additional mental health issues like stress, depression, and anxiety, which impact their daily lives. Despite this connection, mental health support is not commonly integrated into heart care. To improve this, the FRAME (Foundation, Recognition, Awareness, Management, Engagement) intervention was developed by researchers, healthcare providers, health system leaders, and patient partners. This pilot study tests how feasible it is to use the FRAME intervention in various clinical settings across two health regions in Ontario, Canada, including family medicine clinics, cardiac rehabilitation and specialist clinics, and emergency departments. The FRAME intervention is a web-based tool designed to improve how mental health is recognized, understood, managed, and supported in people with heart failure. It has three versions tailored for healthcare providers, caregivers, and patients. The tool includes educational content about heart failure and mental health, conversation guides to help start talks about mental health, self-management activities such as tips on nutrition and exercise, resource maps showing available supports, and tools to help providers discuss mental health and make referrals. FRAME was created through a collaborative process involving patient and community input. Participants in this study will complete surveys and may take part in interviews to share their experiences. Researchers will assess how often mental health conversations occur at baseline and up to six months after using the intervention. The study will also look at process measures and patient-centered outcomes using surveys and interviews. These findings will help plan a larger future study and support integrating the FRAME tool more widely into heart failure care to better address mental health needs.