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 […]
The Compromises and Complexity of Pandemic Integrated Care
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 […]
High-Touch Telemedicine
12 minute read The COVID-19 pandemic, for all of the hardship and loss it has heaped upon the US healthcare system, has initiated a period of unparalleled innovation as well. A great deal of that innovation has been due to the courage and dedication of the physicians, nurses, and administrators on the front lines. Convention […]
Telehealth and Context
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 […]
Settling Into The New Normal
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 Is The Golden Age For Behavioral Health: Will It Become The Golden Age For Primary Care?
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 […]
COVID-19: How to Support the Emotional Wellbeing of Veterans Diagnosed with Diabetes
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. […]
The Whiplash Files: COVID response first 15 days
5 minute read BHC perspective, Portland, OR When our CFHA blog editor reached out to ask for posts on the rapid conversion to telemedicine due to COVID my first thought was, “oh yes, I would like to read those!”. Then I realized that as one of your bloggers it is my job to try to […]