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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
3 minute read The current pandemic has generated ongoing conversations on the topic of self-care, particularly as it relates to frontline workers who are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout. In a recent study at Houston Methodist Hospital, researchers determined that working longer shifts, experiencing more loss of life, PPE supply shortages and fears of infecting […]
3 minute read The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned two healthcare crises: the first focused on containing the disease’s widening footprint, and the second, a behavioral health pandemic created by stress, anxiety and social isolation. Addressing both of these issues requires a population health approach. As such, there is much to be learned from an innovative […]
2 Minute Read: It seems as if 2020 is the year of perpetual transition as we adjust and learn, adjust and learn. Our last few weeks as a membership has been spent thinking about returning to in-person visits (or not) and concurrently thinking about how our personal lives mirror this transition as states “re-open.” Below […]
5 minute read Like many of you, my work as a BHC moved abruptly to 100% phone and video work in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally, there have been some downsides to this. I miss seeing patients in the privacy of an exam room or my office and that irreplaceable connection that […]
3 Minute Read CFHA members have worked hard in the last 9 weeks responding to the various challenges posed by the pandemic. These challenges are not going away, however, a great deal of progress has been made in adapting clinical delivery to telehealth, figuring out the economics of all of this and working on the […]
This blog is a follow-up to a recent panel presentation co-sponsored by Comagine, The Institute for Primary Care Behavioral Health and the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association. The chat for the presentation is here. Video is here or just scroll down. What started out as deep consternation as the COVID pandemic hit in March quickly turned […]
5 minute read The initial panic about the coronavirus has long passed. Sadness and grief from Covid losses is settling in on clinical settings, including behavioral health. In my small psychotherapy practice, I’ve heard about one client tragedy after another: The adult daughter who feels stricken because hospital policy wouldn’t allow her to be at […]
The realities of the pandemic are settling in among our membership and more of our conversation is turning to the long-term implications. We are concerned about our fellow healthcare providers, our patients and the economic realities that healthcare is facing along with the rest of the world. At the same time there is a sense […]
3 minute read In the wake of the current pandemic, the psychological benefits of physical activity may outweigh the physiological ones. It is one of the best ways to combat the effects of social isolation, even when a person exercises alone. Physical activity’s ability to combat stress and depression, improve self-esteem and body image are […]
You know things are weird when behavioral health visits are outpacing primary care visits (at least as far as percentage increases) at many health centers. This is one of several paradoxes of the COVID-19 era along with the finding that many (if not most?) patients are preferring phone visits to video consults – which is […]
3 minute read Uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 can increase feelings of fear and worry among veterans with diabetes. As a behavioral health consultant, I saw an increase of referrals to primary care mental health. Suddenly, I had to develop innovative ways to address the emotional needs of veterans without the traditional in-person face to face appointment. […]
