Five minute read The title of this post is a terrible pick-up line, but it reflects my musings on how we identify patients in primary care who may benefit from behavioral health services. Health screening is standard practice in primary care. We screen for physical health, mental health, substance use, health behaviors, family functioning, social […]
4 minute read. Original post available here With onboarding our new behavioral health consultant (BHC) interns and family medicine (FM) residents, we have had numerous conversations and presentations regarding the importance of integrating a contextual, compassionate approach to healthcare. Regardless of it being delivered by a BHC, by a primary care provider (PCP), by a […]
5 minutes How are helping professionals coping in the waning days of the pandemic? Signs of burnout are everywhere. One in three nurses reportedly plan to leave their jobs. Physicians, especially hospitalists, are wracked by moral injury. Behavioral health workers are being crushed by the press of people seeking help for depression, anxiety, and substance […]
4 minute read First published March, 2019. Original post here. One of the first things I noticed when starting out as a BHC in an obstetrics/gynecology clinic was that every template or model for integrated care focused on primary care as the setting for behavioral health integration. Although much of that information is adaptable to ob/gyn […]
5 minute read First published January 20, 2021. Original post here. “The key to working with behavioral health clients,” a clinical supervisor told me over 30 years ago, “is asking about the past losses they’ve suffered and exploring whether they mishandled them.” He was a loss zealot, a mourning maven. He walked clients through guided […]
10 minute read My husband, Fred Dowaliby, died of Parkinson’s Disease Dementia on Oct. 19, 2019 at the age of 77. Since his death, I have reflected on his journey of nearly a decade. Fred was an accomplished, talented man with a PhD. in educational psychology. As a researcher and statistician, he was known for […]
7 minute read Healthcare today is a team activity. The rapid accumulation of specialized knowledge in healthcare has created a substantial need for partnerships between medical and mental health practitioners. Physicians, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, and other health professionals must work together for patient-centered care to become a reality. These partnerships are best reflected in a […]
Five minute read Most clinicians and managers are not involved in policy-making, a process often compared to sausage production. Yet, healthcare policy impacts all clinicians and other health professionals. Policy is essential for change at the highest levels in our society. Training programs, academic publications, and grant projects cannot hold a candle to the power […]
3 minute read Integrated healthcare is most important for communities with limited access to medical and/or behavioral health services. By making those services available in one place and training a care team to collaborate, vulnerable patients are more likely to get the right treatment at the right time. According to a new report, integration makes […]
3 minute read I am a little late to the game on this 2021 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But my tardiness does not diminish the appeal of the ideas that jump off the 428-pages of this document. These ideas, if implemented, would terraform the primary care landscape. A reliable […]
2 minute read Government agencies are making large investments to make behavioral health and crisis care services more available to the public. Mental health treatment access is a major barrier for large parts of the United States, including my home state of Arizona, ranked near the bottom in treatment access. I will mention three recent […]
2 minute read As the field of artificial intelligence advances, health care providers express concerns about whether computers will at some point outperform us. Although machine learning and particularly deep learning has produced some impressive achievements, the way that the human brain develops and acquires knowledge cannot at this point be replicated. This does not […]
2 minute read New federal funding is available for organizations interested in creating new harm reduction programs for substance use or expanding existing ones. The size and focus of this funding is historic for the US. Eligible applicants are States; local, Tribal, and territorial governments; Tribal organizations; non-profit community-based organizations; and primary and behavioral health […]
2 minute read Many Americans suffer from diseases that lead to a variety of health implications. Some of the top-killing diseases that Americans face include heart disease, hypertension, and type II diabetes.1 Health education on the importance of incorporating a healthy diet into their lifestyle helps with preventing and managing these chronic health problems. One […]
2 minute read There has been little movement in the development of well-established couple and family interventions (in context of health) over the past 10 years, according to a 2021 article published by the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Although several interventions are approaching the level of being well-established, most have limited empirical support. […]
3 minute read Although there is consensus regarding importance of cultural competency in healthcare delivery (Hoge et al., 2014), our ethical framework is distinctly western. Beauchamp and Childress’ Principlism theory (2019), which forms the basis for this focuses on four concepts- respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice- all having cross-cultural relevance. However, the way […]
5 minute read The Department of Health and Human Services recently released their new health workforce strategic plan. There is a lot of good information here. I’ll share a few thoughts below. The plan is worth looking over and will undoubtedly inform future federal spending in workforce development. The new plan has four goals: expand […]
3 minute read Mobile phones are ubiquitous, with data from GSMA Intelligence citing 5.27 billion unique mobile phone users around the world (Datareportal.com, 2021), and the number of users growing at a rate of 2.3% per year. This represents 66.9% of the population (Datareportal.com, 2021). According to a 2021 report by Statista, the United States […]
