While there is no single agreed upon set of competencies for the behavioral health workforce in primary care, there is a consensus about the importance of communication, the role of the behavioral health provider as part of a larger team, and the critical need to value diverse perspectives. In this column, the current and incoming Presidents of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) present a framework that focuses on a "way of being"; a lens to reflect and process the sense of division and injustice, and to pave the path ahead. We believe that the fundamental question that can scale this "way of being" to a higher level of acquired skill or internalized competency for ongoing workforce development is: as we engage in dialogue on difficult, highly personal, moral, and valued topics with others, "Is your heart at peace, or is your heart at war?" May each of us in the CFHA family and community be anchored in hearts of peace as we continue to advance the mission of providing equitable care through our love of integrated behavioral health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Substance misuse persists and is undertreated across the United States (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2021). Further enhancing the skill sets and capacity of interprofessional members of primary care teams to include proficiency in the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model could help to alleviate the "treatment gap" (those requiring treatment, but not receiving it) by enhancing interprofessional teams at the pregraduate level (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Addressing the opioid crisis requires attention to the fact that people with opioid use disorder are affected by multiple systems and professionals working across disciplines (e.g., primary health care, social work, psychology).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this president's column, the author notes that resilience has been identified as a strategy to mitigate the triumvirate of burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral distress. Once viewed as an innate personality trait, there has been an increased focus on the cultivation of resilience among health care providers, with attention to evolving educational models depending on the career stage of the provider and interventions for interprofessional health care workers. Strategies to develop the "7Cs" of individual resilience, which were initially applied to children and adolescents, have begun to be applied to physicians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile the full scope of sexual health treatment is unlikely to ever be exclusively provided in primary care, it is increasingly important that interdisciplinary teams are poised to address this issue more effectively and comprehensively than we currently are. Providers need to seek out training and resources as they work toward meeting recently articulated competencies in an effort to provide whole person care. And, in the meantime, open the door to conversations about holistic sexual health by simply asking patients about their experiences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a psychologist, the author says that her role in the integrated primary care team has always been that of the behavioral health provider, serving to promote the holistic health of the patients and families with whom she works as part of the larger integrated team. Central to both Primary Care Behavioral Health and the Collaborative Care model-as well as other models of integration-is that the health care works to address fragmented care in order to most comprehensively address patient needs. And yet we often focus on training to the model in which behavioral health providers work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs the number of forcibly displaced vulnerable populations accelerates worldwide, it is increasingly important that health care systems and professionals be prepared to offer comprehensive, culturally, and linguistically appropriate services to migrant and refugee populations. Understanding the unique needs and lived experiences of these populations, including their risks to health and wellbeing as well as opportunities to promote resilience, is necessary to support these populations' diverse needs. Integrated primary care teams are uniquely poised to support these populations by reducing barriers to health and promoting equitable and holistic care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of an antiracist and culturally responsive integrated health care professionals necessitates attention to, and appreciation of, the diverse intersectional identities of the patients with whom we work. Pamela Hays' (2001) ADDRESSING model (Age and generational influences, Developmental and acquired Disability, Religion and spiritual orientation, Ethnic and racial identity, Socioeconomic status, Sexual orientation, Indigenous heritage, National origin, and Gender) can provide a useful framework to understand the complex interaction of diverse identities, particularly among people with disabilities (PWD). PWD represent more than a quarter of the United States population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020), and the lived experiences of PWD are varied, with disability often serving as an "umbrella term" for functional differences in mobility, cognition, hearing, vision, self-care and independent living across the life span.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) has increased its focus on justice, diversity, and inclusion in integrated care delivery, it is increasingly evident that widespread upstream transformation is needed to ensure that the integrated care workforce is appropriately prepared to deliver equitable care. This column highlights the need for systemic change in admissions standards, integrated care curricula, student mentorship/sponsorship, and faculty development within higher education in order to support the success of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students and increase antiracist approaches among health care professionals. CFHA members working in, or in collaboration with, academia are uniquely poised to influence higher education systems to promote diversity, inclusion, and antiracism among future integrated health professionals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this brief article, the author notes that discussion of work/life integration have become increasingly com mon at her institution, as school-age children regularly make appearances in Zoom meetings, and team mem bers have to shift between dynamic roles in their work and family lives throughout the day. Talk of burnout abounds-and she often find herself wondering if in fact they are only experiencing burnout as an occupational phenomenon, or whether it is a compounded experi ence of burnout and the emotional exhaustion of collective trauma and grief. Even when concerns dissipate about COVID's relentless spread and severe disease, there is no doubt that we will have lingering mental health hangovers from the psychologi cal impacts of the past year; we must be pre pared to leverage informatics and technology to stem the tide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPresents a column from the presidents of the CHFA who discuss the current impacts of COVID-19 in the United States and in health care. The inconsistent, unscientific, and divisive response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the racial inequality made evident by it, may serve historians and future leadership educators of what not to do in times of crisis, painful lessons that may be productive if we learn from our mistakes. The column then discusses the importance of racial and ethnic diversity within CHFA, workforce development, stragetic partnerships and policy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: An estimated 21 million Americans meet the criteria for a substance use disorder (SUD), whereas 24% of the population engages in risky alcohol use leading to tremendous health and economic impacts (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2017). Opioid misuse is a national public health emergency, with an estimated 46,802 opioid-related deaths occurring in 2018 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2020). Despite the high prevalence of risky substance use and SUDs, preservice education related to screening for and treating SUDs in health and behavioral health professions is inadequate (Dimoff, Sayette, & Norcross, 2017; Russett & Williams, 2015; Savage et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTop Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil
March 2021
The collaboration with individuals regarding their sexual health is an important component of patient-centered health care. However, talking about sexual health in primary care settings is an area not fully addressed as a result of time limitations, medical task prioritization, awareness or knowledge deficit, and discomfort with the topic of sexuality. A critical shift in professional focus from disease and medical illness to the promotion of health and wellness is a prerequisite to address sexual health in the primary care setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThough cultural competence and inclusion of diverse identities are increasingly emphasized in psychological training and practice, sexual health and well-being among people with disabilities (PWD) continue to be underrecognized areas in which disability cultural competence is needed. The experience of disability is best conceptualized as an interaction between physical, sensory, or cognitive differences and environmental and sociocultural contexts that facilitate or impede adaptive functioning; these complex interactions, coupled with an individual's age, gender, ethnicity, religious background, and sexual orientation, often inform one's sexual health and well-being. Disability can be thought of as a minority cultural status-a marginalized and stigmatized identity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: What patients intend when they make health care choices and whether they understand the meaning of orders for life-sustaining treatment forms is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to analyze the directives from a sample of emergency department (ED) patients' MOLST forms.
Procedures: MOLST forms that accompanied 100 patients who were transported to an ED were collected and their contents analyzed.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a game-like exercise tool as a component of occupational and physical therapy treatment for patients with shoulder pain and impairment in an outpatient physical therapy clinic.
Materials And Methods: The product evaluated is a hands-free therapy (HFT) prototype, using Microsoft(®) (Redmond, WA) Kinect™ technology. HFT was designed as a home exercise program (HEP), or adjunct to a clinic-based exercise program, with the goal to improve patient compliance and outcomes by providing patients with continuous immediate feedback and engaging them in a game-like experience.
Context: Emergency 911 calls are often made when the end stage of an advanced illness is accompanied by alarming symptoms and substantial anxiety for family caregivers, particularly when an approaching death is not anticipated. How prehospital providers (paramedics and emergency medical technicians) manage emergency calls near death influences how and where people will die, if their end-of-life choices are upheld and how appropriately health care resources are used.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how prehospital providers assess and manage end-of-life emergency calls.
Objective: The sexual lives of returning Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans have only been discussed minimally in the psychological literature. Given the nature of military social and cultural contexts, the potential for exposure to combat-related stressors that may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the risk of traumatic brain injury secondary to physical injury, the potential for significant psychological and relational ramifications exists. This article focuses on the intimate relationships and sexuality of returning OIF/OEF/OND veterans within the context of their personal cultural variables and the diverse experience of being a part of military life.
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