Patients experience primary care firsthand, offering valuable insights into the accessibility, scope, coordination, and continuity of services. Their feedback can help identify gaps, refine innovations, and ensure that enhancements truly improve patient-centered care. By integrating patient perspectives, healthcare systems can more effectively tailor and assess improvements in the 4Cs, leading to more responsive, efficient, and […]
References Hodges, A. (1983). Alan Turing: The Enigma. Princeton University Press. http://www.press.princeton.edu Kuhn, T.S. (1962, 1970, 1996, 2012). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press. http://www.press.uchicao.edu Raman, I.M. & Ferster, D.L. (2021). The Annotated Hodgkin & Huxley: A Reader’s Guide. Princeton University Press. http://www.press.princeton.edu Schrodinger, E. (1944, 1958, 1967). What is Life? Cambridge […]
The SWAPA Framework One of the key tools my husband’s team uses is SWAPA, which stands for Soil, Water, Air, Plants, and Animals. This framework evaluates land health by examining the relationships between these five elements. Each one is important on its own, but together, they reveal the full picture of an ecosystem’s well-being. As […]
Integrated Care Models Improve Outcomes for Co-Occurring Diabetes and Depressive Symptoms People with diabetes are about twice as likely to develop depressive symptoms. Further, people with diabetes report that their diabetes care teams rarely (less than 50% of the time) assess their mental health generally or their depressive symptoms more specifically. When people present with […]
One other thing that made this meeting memorable was the appearance of T-shirts that express loyalty to a model of integrated care. It started with the PCBH T-shirts, but by the end of the conference I was seeing CoCM T-shirts as well. This made literal the process that I have been thinking about for several […]
Howard Thurman, a spiritual founder of the civil rights movement once wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” His words challenge us to resist stagnation, conformity, and systems that stifle our ability to effect meaningful change. […]
A few months ago, I was experiencing some significant stress in multiple microsystems of my life and was implementing many of my tried-and-true strategies to ground myself in my values and practice self-compassion. One night at dinner, my children were asking about differences I had in schools. It is important to know that, as the […]
The review underscores the importance of integrating behavioral health into the public health agenda, opposing the health-detrimental effects of anti-immigration policies and calling for collective efforts to advocate for policy changes. This call for action urges healthcare professionals, policymakers, and advocates to evaluate the intersection of immigration policies and behavioral health, emphasizing that global health […]
I’m going to make an argument here that the antidote to political uncertainty and rapid change in the healthcare landscape is community, particularly local community. And in so doing I’m also tying us to a promise that this community, the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA), will be a nexus of moral strength and innovation for […]
The following was prepared by the UMass Center for Integrated Primary Care, for more information about CIPC courses for behavioral clinicians, physicians, and other members of the primary care team, visit: www.umassmed.edu/cipc Daniel Mullin, PsyD MPH, director of the Center for Integrated Primary Care (CIPC), began his involvement with primary care transformation more than a […]
A Shakespearean Influence Hamlet’s poignant dilemma, “To be or not to be,” has significantly contributed to illustrating ambivalence as an integral part of the human experience. And research has highlighted its role in moderating the relationship between attitudes and behavior. However, there are still questions about when ambivalence leads to more resistance or susceptibility to […]
If you are a clinician you know the feeling. It’s that moment in a care process with a patient where you could do more or choose to do less. You battle internally to decide what to do and ultimately you know you can’t live with yourself if you choose to do less. That’s our moment as […]
Tracing our Professional Lineage Years ago, I attended a gathering where the late family therapist Lynn Hoffman illustrated a colleague’s professional lineage by mapping out the influential figures in their career in a family tree format, like a genogram. Her friend and colleague Marcelo Pakman, a regular to these reunions, coined this exploration a “retroscope.” […]
5 minute read My first job after postdoctoral training was at a family medicine residency program in central North Carolina. It was exactly what I wanted: a combination of direct patient care, graduate medical education, and program development. I took over for Dan Marlowe, another medical family therapist who left to join the faculty at […]
5 minute read Imagine an older Latina woman we’ll call Maria who is accompanied to her primary care visit for a diabetes check-up by her two adult daughters. Because Maria speaks little English and her provider speaks little Spanish, the daughters immediately start translating for their mother. The daughters also directly answer the provider’s questions […]
3 minute read I was not ready to negotiate my first, “big boy” salary. Until that point, my pay rates were all decided by policies (e.g., minimum wage, graduate student stipends, teenager allowance). I didn’t have the moxie, or matching clothes, to negotiate. Growing up, salary talk was off the table, quite literally. My parents […]
Five minute read “She was visibly upset while she talked about the confrontation with her brother,” I said. “And then suddenly she stood up, arms wide open, asking for a hug.” “And what did you do?” my clinical supervisor asked. “What else could I do? I gave her a hug!” My supervisor smiled. “I want […]
5 minute read “You will need to screen every patient for depression using the PHQ-9,” my supervisor told me. “Focus on the first two questions and notify the internist of the scores”. Sounds simple enough. Wait, what is the PHQ-9? What’s an internist? “Don’t tell me the scores,” the internist instructed me. “Just tell me […]
