3 minute read Last August I wrote about the long wait times for individuals in need of mental health services. Soon after that post, the American Psychological Association published survey results in November 2022 showing that 60% of psychologists cannot accept new patients, while 72% have longer wait lists than before the pandemic. A 2023 […]
5 minute read Most of my training and career have focused on the individual or family sitting in front of me asking for relief from their suffering. I have spent many hours learning how to engage, evaluate, and treat complex human beings who walk through the clinic door. It’s hard and rewarding work; but the […]
Maybe one of the only positives of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an increase in attention to the long-standing crisis in behavioral health and the movement to address the systemic barriers which prevent people from getting care. President Biden has announced a national strategy to address the mental health crisis. The Department of Health and […]
5 minute read Once upon a time, I was a behavioral medicine director at a family medicine clinic in North Carolina. Part of my job was to monitor the patient waiting list. We had normal delays like confirmation of benefits and no appointment slots. My goal was to schedule new patient appointments within 1-2 weeks […]
In January 2021, Representative Mike Thompson introduced the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021 (H.R. 432) that, among other things, would authorize Medicare payment for covered mental health and substance use services provided by licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFT) and licensed mental health counselors (LMHC. The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on […]
3 minute read The House Committee on Energy and Commerce recently advanced to the house a package of bipartisan legislation geared towards improving mental and behavioral health treatment, as well as providing substance use disorder care. If passed, this bill would have direct impact on integrated care programs throughout the U.S. I will highlight some […]
Five minute read Most clinicians and managers are not involved in policy-making, a process often compared to sausage production. Yet, healthcare policy impacts all clinicians and other health professionals. Policy is essential for change at the highest levels in our society. Training programs, academic publications, and grant projects cannot hold a candle to the power […]
3 minute read I am a little late to the game on this 2021 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But my tardiness does not diminish the appeal of the ideas that jump off the 428-pages of this document. These ideas, if implemented, would terraform the primary care landscape. A reliable […]
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 […]
