5 minute read Heart disease and cancer continue to be the biggest leaders for US deaths in 2020.1 Heart disease led the way at 650,000 while cancer was just shy of 600,000. One common risk factor is obesity which is also correlated with the development of other diseases such as type II diabetes and hypertension. […]
3 minute read In 2012, only one third of all United States adults met the criteria for metabolic syndrome.1 In recent years this number has increased drastically. Today, it is estimated that only about 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy. Certain factors may put an individual at a higher risk of being diagnosed with metabolic […]
2 minute read It is no surprise that pandemic-related isolation has, for many, had pathological consequences. Hardly a day passes without some mention in the media of anxiety and depression. What has received less attention is how COVID-19 affected our furry friends. For my cat, Goober, it has been the greatest thing to ever happen […]
Five Minute Read We were curious about how our members utilize social media and connectivity tools, so we asked and they answered. The results are fascinating and will help us plan future efforts to support networking amongst the members of our association, the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA). Why should you care? Well, read on […]
3 minute read The human brain constitutes about two percent of body mass yet consumes approximately 20% of available blood sugar (Mergenthaler et al., 2013). Unlike other major energy consumers such as muscle and liver cells, neurons store very little glucose, certainly not enough to avoid a shortage (Dienel & Rothman, 2019). In addition, while […]
Five Minute Read Operating as a behavioral health consultant (BHC) in primary care has always demanded flexibility but never more so than during the pandemic. Things have changed significantly and it’s worthwhile for us to reflect on those changes, not with resistance, but simply with acknowledgment and mindfulness about what those changes mean. So, this […]
5 minute read. This post is a reproduction of the recent FSH journal newsletter. FSH is the official journal of CFHA. FSH Editors’ Retreat It did not include all the fun times we had last year when we were together in Canada, but we carved out the time and got the work done during two […]
2 minute read In a recent article for the New Yorker, physician/author Siddhartha Mukherjee discussed a surprising finding: that COVID-related deaths in a number of low-income countries are a fraction of the totals in developed nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and Spain (Mukherjee, 2021). How could this be? Was this […]
2 minute read The current pandemic is the greatest healthcare crisis most of us have experienced during our lifetimes, with over half a million deaths from the novel virus in the US alone (CDC, 2021). Yet for those who journalist Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” (Brokaw, 1998), COVID-19 is simply another roadblock. Brokaw […]
3 minute read Ah, high school. I’m not sure what your experience was like, but as a shy, awkward thing, I found comfort in my high school’s theatre troupe and Latin club crowds. I relished acting in low budget school plays, competing in city and statewide Latin competitions (I know, nerd alert!), and I even […]
Our community is a rarity in the healthcare world. We do not represent a guild. We do not represent a sector of the healthcare industry. We do not represent a disease category. We represent an idea. That idea is that healthcare works best when professionals, in tandem with families and their communities, work together within […]
3 minute read Last week, the number of infections reported to the World Health Organization dropped for the third week in a row. Here in the US, recent reports suggest that numbers are dropping as well. The number of new daily coronavirus cases has dropped below 100,000 for the first time this year, according to […]
3 minute read In the late 1980s, neurologists Sterling and Eyer introduced the theory of allostasis, which describes how certain physiological processes such as heart rate and blood pressure shift rapidly in order to maintain the internal mileiu.1 In a healthy animal, such adaptations serve to maintain a homeostatic baseline. However, when internal or external […]
5 minute read “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 imagery exercises of standing beside their loved one’s […]
10 Minute read Our field has several pioneers and innovators in family-centered work, whether in clinical practice, education, training, research, or policy specialties. This edition of the Families and Health SIG newsletter wanted to highlight the voices of several well-known individuals in the field and share their words of wisdom to future students and professionals […]
3 minute read Efficient care and high productivity are essential elements for behavioral health consultants (BHC) practicing the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model. But there can be quite a bit of variability in how clinics measure quality and productivity. Metrics can include the number of patients seen, the relative value of each intervention provided, […]
3 minute read The emerging COVID-19 vaccine rollout is a potential knockout blow for a pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the wellbeing of individuals and families across the globe. A new article from the editors at Families, Systems, and Health reviews the challenges of vaccine dissemination and uptake and recommends the mobilization of interprofessional […]
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 […]
