4 minute read I can hear her soft voice, with its slight Long Island intonations, murmuring in the next room as she comforts her many struggling psychotherapy clients about the pandemic during their telehealth appointments with her. My office—once our adult son’s childhood bedroom with YA titles and high school notebooks still on the bookshelves—is […]
For the Love of Learning: A Reflection on the Written Word
3 minute read Next month, I will turn 65: a point in life when one realizes that the rearview is longer than what lies ahead. The decision to enter Arizona State University’s DBH program after 30 years in journalism raised a few eyebrows among former colleagues. My own perspective is one of evolution, stemming from […]
The Undersell and Other Head-Spinning Work of a BHC
5 minute read “… I normally see patients for 3-6 visits.” “… we will focus on the symptoms that are getting in your way right now and help you to connect to something longer term if needed.” “… I can help with x, y, and z but if you need help with a, b, and […]
Here’s What You Were Talking About In 2020
10 Minute Read Our conversations tell us a lot about who we are, so we thought it would be a good idea to review our top list serve conversations for 2020. Before those of you who are not members of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) stop reading, let me convince you as to why […]
In the Mind’s Eye: Adapting New Technology for a Familiar Adage
5 minute read Emerging research is bringing new meaning to this familiar adage. Although the study of eye movements is more than a century old, new technology has made eye tracking devices more comfortable for research subjects, and more portable for use in naturalistic settings.1 In general, eye movement studies are of two types. The […]
Tough Talks: When Kiddos Share Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings in Primary Care
Five minute read Hearing a child or youth say that they want to die can be a scary experience for any behavioral health professional. When I was a newly minted BHC, I found myself in a complex juggling act of supporting my medical team, taking my patient’s suicidal ideation (SI) seriously while understanding variations in […]
What Big Bird Can Teach Us About Integrated Care
5 minute read. Original post available here. Starting and sustaining a movement in healthcare is tough business, unless there is a plan and resources for dissemination. The movement to integrate behavioral health services into primary care began in diverse places, but now appears to have serious momentum. The challenges facing integration today are many and include […]
Research Review
15 minute read If you’re looking for a break from election and pandemic news, you came to the right place. This post covers the best research in integrated behavioral healthcare over the past 4-6 months. First, check out the recent special issue on pediatrics and collaborative care in the Pediatrics Annal journal. You will find […]
The Compromises and Complexity of Pandemic Integrated Care
7 minute read I am writing this post on the tail-end of the CFHA 2020 conference. What an amazing time of coming together and re-orienting ourselves to this work! I have to admit to feeling fairly stressed during the conference as a clinician and behavioral health director. To some extent, this is often the case […]
Brave New World: Technology is Helping Providers to Find Affective Disorders Earlier, but Patient Privacy Concerns Abound
5 minute read Although we can’t predict what the post-pandemic world will look like, it is certain that it will bear little resemblance to the period preceding the current crisis. Mobile health and Internet technologies have been developing at breakneck pace, reflecting the recent focus on telehealth, as well as the omnipresence of cell phones. […]
How widespread is integrated care?
5 Minute Read This is a first. To our knowledge no systematic effort to account for the number of practices providing integrated behavioral health services in the United States has been undertaken, other than efforts to identify colocated providers in a geographical space. To be sure the data collected has its limitations and this blog […]
Pediatric Patient Engagement During A Pandemic
5 minute read Greetings, CFHA! My name is Norma Balli-Borrero, and this is my very first post as a newly minted member of the CFHA Blog Writing Team. My posts will center around being a BHC and research assistant working in Pediatrics. Some of my posts will be based on my own personal experience, while […]
Shell Shocked: Psychological implications for those working on COVID’s front lines
3 minute read As COVID-19 progresses into its ninth month, there is growing concern about long-term psychological consequences for frontline workers, and their inability to self-monitor. Shell shock was a term first used during World War I to describe psychological trauma among soldiers who had served on the front lines. Researchers observing symptoms such as […]
A Tool for Medical Providers to Evaluate Family Functioning
3 minute read Reprint. Original post available here. Family functioning is one way to measure how a family meets its physical and psychological needs; in other words, it quantifies the family’s emotional environment1,2. Family functioning has been found to be associated with chronic physical and mental illness in children3–6; however, family functioning is not consistently […]
Survey Says: Maybe Don’t Screen So Much?
5 minute read Several years ago, I did an audit of PHQ-9 scores in our clinic and noticed that the total scores did not always match the individual item scores. Nurse, I need a calculator, stat. At the time, my team took a universal, paper-based screening approach for depression: patient answers questions on a clipboard; […]
We Can End Racism In Our House
5 Minute Read There is a necessary connection between our work in integrating behavioral health and medicine and the work of rooting out racism in health care. That connection lies at the root of what those of us who call ourselves champions of integrated care are doing: we are reforming a fragmented and too-often ineffective […]
Seniors for Seniors Animal Adoption Programs Bring Older Adults Out of Isolation
2 minute read Older adults have been among those most impacted by the current pandemic, both physically and emotionally. In addition to advancing age, many such individuals suffer from chronic diseases that increase risk for unfavorable health outcomes should they contract COVID-19. Although self-isolation is keeping them healthy, many find quality of life to be […]
Don’t Quit: We Can Outlast All Of This
3 Minute Read I’ve been tempted to throw my laptop/ iPhone across the room in recent weeks. This coronavirus thing and the political and economic chaos it has wrought, not to mention the morbidity and mortality that accompanies it have pushed me to the brink. And many healthcare professionals have intimated to me that they […]