Maria, RN By three in the afternoon, the clinic always felt a little frayed at the edges. The hum of printers, the faint ring of unanswered phone lines, the blinking of notices for new results — it all blended into the kind of background noise you stop noticing until the day feels heavy. It was […]
Why We Need Dedicated Integrated Care Directors — At Every Level of the Health System If you’ve spent any time in the integrated care space, you know the pattern: A grant funds a pilot. A bold health plan tries something innovative. A state rolls out a value-based model. Then people move on, funding dries up, […]
The question is: how can a design philosophy rooted in early modernism help us create healthcare spaces that are more human, efficient, holistic, and equitable? The answer might partially lie in six Bauhaus ideas that seem to align perfectly with the aims of integrated care. 1. Form Follows Function At the core of Bauhaus design […]
The Firestarter Framework: Fueling Passion and Purpose Dr. Thomas opened her session delving into the Firestarter Framework to explore our personal journeys in Integrated Care leadership and inspire participants to carry the CFHA “spark” home after the conference, igniting ongoing passion for integration. This framework classifies drivers of change into three groups. These Firestarter types […]
What’s New in the MOUD Playbook The updated Playbook offers several key enhancements: · A stronger emphasis on low-barrier, person-centered care. The Playbook underscores that using MOUD saves lives and should not be withheld due to continued substance use or resistance to counseling. It highlights the need for stigma reduction, appropriate levels of care, and […]
While many providers in primary care encounter patients at risk of suicide, they may not feel equipped to respond. A new topic brief from AHRQ’s Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care aims to help. Emerging Best Practices for Addressing Suicidality in Primary Care outlines strategies that can be integrated into routine care and […]
Bion’s Relevance in Modern Healthcare The psychoanalytic perspectives of Bion, especially his concepts of container-contained thinking, thinking under pressure, and emotional truth, appear conceptually distant from the practical and fast-paced demands of integrated healthcare. Yet it is precisely in this setting, where clinicians must think quickly while holding complex emotions, that Bion becomes indispensable. According […]
I’ll admit it. I’ve had Bad Bunny on repeat for weeks now. As his historic residency in Puerto Rico wraps up its final weekend, I cannot help but reflect on the unexpected lessons I felt during his concert and apply some to working in integrated care. Yes, you read that right. A reggaeton superstar’s show […]
The Value of a Pearls Gathering At the end of the first pandemic year, BHCs from multiple sites at the Pediatric Physicians’ Organization at Children’s (PPOC) convened to reflect on what we called the “Pearls of 2020 – Staying Integrated During the Pandemic.” The Pearls initiative identified six key elements of integration, each of which […]
Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are children of expatriates who spend a significant part of their upbringing in a culture different from their own or their parents’ nationality. The term TCK stems from the presence of three cultural influences in their lives: their heritage culture(s), the host country culture(s), and the culture of expatriates and other TCKs. […]
Interestingly the word “Jenga” does not mean “angst derived from a predestinated tower of calamity.” Jenga’s roots are in Swahili from the word “kujenga” meaning “to build” (“Jenga”, 2025). Jenga got me thinking about integrated care on one of these fun Saturday nights. We take the warm handoff on the behavioral health side (or provide […]
Neuroimaging Studies Suggest a Link Between Art and Happiness In the mid-20th century, artist Margaret Naumburg came up with the concept of art as symbolic speech, and founded the field of art psychotherapy, based largely on the writings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung (Borowsky Junge, 2016). The American Art Therapy Association dates back to […]
While no standard framework yet exists, the brief suggests nine common components drawn from models used with children ages 0-5 in pediatric and family medicine, adapted to guide behavioral-developmental health screening and response for adolescents. Implementation of these components can be tailored to fit available resources, staff expertise, and organizational goals. The brief provides real-world […]
While sitting in on my parents’ medical visits, some of their doctors looked through me like I was wearing Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility once they learned I had specialized knowledge. They neither talked to me nor gave me the opportunity to provide input or ask questions as if concerned, perhaps, I would second-guess their […]
While the PCBH model of care is gaining popularity, it provides challenges for participating BH clinicians, who are oftentimes learning to provide care in a new delivery setting while also being asked to supervise pre-licensure trainees. To support this critical component of the workforce, we tried to determine if the CoP model would provide a […]
A True Story of Solidarity in Action Just weeks earlier, on September 20, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, claiming many lives and leaving widespread destruction in its wake. In response, the people of Holyoke, Massachusetts, mobilized. Residents and local leaders joined forces to send food and clothing to the island and to welcome newly arrived […]
I lift and share my voice (well… my lyrics—because my singing, at my children’s request, is reserved for showers and car rides) with you. Together, we are a chorus singing in exam rooms, classrooms, courtrooms, boardrooms, voting booths, chat rooms, and every room we can and do squeeze into. You may not always hear this […]
Introduction The Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) recognizes the utility and potential for Measurement Based Care (MBC) as a core feature of high-quality integrated healthcare. MBC supports optimal clinical practice, demonstrates the value of integrated care teams, and improves outcomes. MBC is much more than simply administering behavioral health measures. Rather, it is an evidence-based, […]
