Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid / en Fri, 02 May 2025 18:21:46 -0500 Tue, 18 Mar 25 15:36:17 -0500 New program seeks to improve mental health care access for health workers /news/headline/2025-03-18-new-program-seeks-improve-mental-health-care-access-health-workers A new <a href="https://drlornabreen.org/new-initiative-brings-healthcare-community-together/" target="_blank">initiative</a> launched March 18 by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation seeks to improve mental health care access for health care workers. The program, Health Workers Have The Right, Too, includes six actions for improving mental health care access. The actions are to ensure accessible and affordable mental health care; commit to equal privacy in mental health care; strengthen access to confidential professional or physician health program support; guarantee confidential peer support; encourage education and training on mental health and professional well-being; and advance a supportive pathway for re-entry.&nbsp; Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:36:17 -0500 Mental Health First Aid AHA podcast: Access and Awareness for Mental Health Support Services聽 /news/headline/2024-10-09-aha-podcast-access-and-awareness-mental-health-support-services Creating mental health resources is an important "step one" in broadening patient access. The second? Getting people to take advantage of that access. In this conversation, Gaurav Agarwal, M.D., chief wellness executive at Northwestern Medicine, shares how the health system approached access awareness within their communities and the steps needed to ensure mental health support services are available. <a href="/advancing-health-podcast/2024-10-09-access-and-awareness-mental-health-support-services">LISTEN NOW</a><div></div> Wed, 09 Oct 2024 15:05:05 -0500 Mental Health First Aid Access and Awareness for Mental Health Support Services /advancing-health-podcast/2024-10-09-access-and-awareness-mental-health-support-services Creating mental health resources is an important "step one" in broadening patient access. Step two? Getting people to take advantage of that access. In this conversation, Gaurava Agarwal, M.D., chief wellness executive at Northwestern Medicine, shares how the health system approached access awareness within its communities, and the steps needed to ensure that mental health support services are available.<hr><div></div>&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"> <details class="transcript"> <summary> <h2 title="Click here to open/close the transcript."> View Transcript &nbsp; </h2> </summary> 00:00:00:16 - 00:00:35:06 Tom Haederle It's been about 17 months since the official end of the Covid 19 pandemic, but its effect on caregivers - stress, burnout, anxiety - remains. In Chicago, Northwestern Medicine has created a continuum of innovative mental health support programs that not only encourage its staff to seek out needed help, but also make a point of addressing the stigma that still holds too many caregivers back from taking care of themselves. 00:00:35:08 - 00:01:12:12 Tom Haederle Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the 黑料正能量 Association. I'm Tom Haederle, with AHA communications. Creating mental health support resources is one thing. Getting people to take advantage of them can be an uphill climb. In today's podcast hosted by Rebecca Chickey, senior director of Behavioral Health Services with the AHA, and Emma Jellen, a former associate director with the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, we hear from Northwestern's chief wellness officer about how his organization raised awareness of access to its mental and behavioral health support services, and what other health systems can learn from Northwestern's example. 00:01:12:15 - 00:01:14:14 Tom Haederle And now to Rebecca. 00:01:14:16 - 00:01:27:07 Rebecca Chickey Thank you Tom. Indeed, it's a great honor to be here with Emma Jellen from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation and Dr. Gaurava Agarwal from Northwestern Medicine. Emma, I think you have the first question. 00:01:27:14 - 00:01:49:05 Emma Jellen Yeah. Thanks so much, Rebecca, and thank you so much for having me here today. Dr. Agarwal, I wonder if you could just, talk a little bit about why and how Northwestern Medicine decided to build such a multifaceted offering of well-being programs and policies that really promote access to mental health care for your health care workforce. 00:01:49:07 - 00:02:08:29 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. I'd love to, Emma. Thank you, and thank you, Rebecca, for having me as well. You know, I think for those who don't know, I'm a psychiatrist, and I serve as our chief wellness executive in Northwestern Medicine. And as I took on these wellness roles, I initially sort of ran from focusing on the mental health aspects 00:02:09:01 - 00:02:31:29 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. related to wellness, to be honest with you. I really wanted people to understand that we were here to address some of the systemic issues that impact our well-being. And this was before the pandemic. And then as we sort of went through the pandemic, it was pretty clear that, A, some of the systemic issues, were going to have to be put on the backburner a little bit. 00:02:31:29 - 00:02:57:12 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. There was too much change going on. To be able to truly do other system redesign in the midst of a pandemic. And B, it was clear that we were seeing all the data that showed the mental health impacts of the pandemic on our health care workforce. And, we have tried to organize our wellbeing program to make sure that folks have resources at the sort of prevention level, you know, hopefully before they have issues. 00:02:57:14 - 00:03:29:00 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. But we realized we had to bulk up our resources available to individuals experiencing distress, due to the pandemic, things like burnout, trauma, etc.. And then we also needed to enhance our resources for folks whose distress had actually progressed on to actual mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.. That was really the genesis of, hey, how do we take a comprehensive look at making sure that the that our workforce has resources available to everyone of those levels? 00:03:29:03 - 00:03:51:02 Rebecca Chickey I think the last time you and I met and talked, you had six or seven programs that were part of this multifaceted approach. Could you take a few minutes and maybe share with the listeners descriptions of one or two or three of the programs to give them a sense of the diversity and the different types of audiences that you're trying to meet their needs. 00:03:51:04 - 00:04:10:04 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Sure. Happy to do so. And the reason we did that is what we have found is it's hard, even when we do things, it's hard for our workforce to tell us, oh, you guys did that? I didn't know about that. And for us, that is disappointing, of course because if we build them but they don't know about it, no one's going to be utilizing them. 00:04:10:04 - 00:04:32:05 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And so we have tried to figure out what will increase the likelihood of our workforce knowing about things, so that they can use them. And, and for us, one of those things that helps us hopefully have greater penetration of awareness is having campaigns. Right? If we do one thing sometimes that can get lost in the shuffle. 00:04:32:05 - 00:04:55:19 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And to your point, Rebecca, that one thing may be more applicable to one job family or another. When we do campaigns, we're able to have broader communications because maybe not everything will hit you, but at least some things will. And something will resonate or something will say, hey, this is something that I need. And so we said, if we're going to do this, let's, let's try to do a couple of these things at the same time 00:04:55:19 - 00:05:22:12 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. so we could truly launch a campaign and raise awareness about how the organization takes mental health seriously, and we support you seriously. So for us, again, using that rubric of wanting to bolster resources in the distress zone, we initially spent, time creating a peer support program. And that peer support program was initially for attending physicians. 00:05:22:15 - 00:05:48:22 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And over time, that peer support program has increased to be available to our APPs, our nurses, our pharmacists and our residents and trainees. And so, as we saw the benefit of peer support and how it can help in someone's really acute time of need, we realized this is a great program for lots of different folks who may experience adverse events or medical errors or near misses at the bedside. 00:05:48:25 - 00:06:13:00 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. In addition, we expanded what peer support can support around. And so historically, these things are around those issues of adverse events or medical errors. But we wanted what we were seeing, particularly during the pandemic and frankly, unfortunately this continued, was incivility at the bedside. And so we created a trauma informed peer support program that supported around discrimination and bias at the bedside by patients and visitors. 00:06:13:05 - 00:06:43:28 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And that was a big escalation. And that's, a program we call P2P Safer. You know, it's to provide a safer program, a safer environment for our health care workforce. In that same distress bucket w2e also launched coaching, particularly coaching around burnout, imposter phenomenon, etc., for our trainees, residents and fellows. And that program for us really provided many of the skills that I wish I had had as a resident and fellow. 00:06:43:29 - 00:07:04:11 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. You know, the medicine in some ways was the easy part. It's how do you continue to develop your professional identity, how do you balance your work and life in a different way? So that coaching program was something that we're really, really proud of. At the tertiary level, that final level where distress has progressed to disease, we took a nudge from other groups and said, hey, you know what? 00:07:04:11 - 00:07:36:12 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. EAP is not enough and you need to look at your EAPs. And so we did. And what we said is, hey, what do we know about how many sessions it takes to improve anxiety and depression. And so we increased, we picked a new EAP and we increased the number of visits our entire workforce would have by 33%, for any incident that they would have, which, to me and my specialty aligned better with how long it generally takes to feel better from mild to moderate depression. 00:07:36:14 - 00:08:01:29 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. We looked at the diversity of the therapists that were available to our workforce. Obviously when there is race concordance or ethnic concordance that can be a big increase in the desire for people to utilize the services that they feel understood or they feel like their therapist gives them. And we felt like, our prior vendor, we didn't feel like we had the diversity to offer our diverse workforce. 00:08:02:02 - 00:08:03:22 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And so we enhanced that. 00:08:03:25 - 00:08:30:08 Rebecca Chickey That's exceptional. I was just going to say, you truly offered the listeners what the definition is of multifaceted. Not only do you describe three different programs and approaches, but then within each program, customizing it to better meet the needs of the type of workforce and, and the diversity of our current workforce. So thank you. Emma, I think you have another question for him now. 00:08:30:10 - 00:09:00:19 Emma Jellen Yeah. I mean, I was just going to say, wow. Like I've heard you talk about all the work you've done and the policies and systems changes you've made, to really create this culture of well-being and this campaign at Northwestern. But every time I hear it, I remain impressed. And I have to assume that perhaps a listener who has clicked on this podcast has a vested interest or is about to embark or has already embarked on this journey 00:09:00:21 - 00:09:23:19 Emma Jellen as well. And perhaps after you listing all of the programs there, they might see this as a little bit daunting. But we know that you're not the first institution to do something like this, but we really hope you're not the last, right? So I wonder if you can share a little bit about the journey, where you started. 00:09:23:21 - 00:09:35:24 Emma Jellen And, you know, maybe put people's minds at ease about the process or at least let them know what they're in for, just so we see more uptick and more implementation and adaptation of things that exist. 00:09:35:26 - 00:10:01:06 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I want to be clear. All these things sound like, you know, you had a master plan when you started, but, you know, we were just putting one foot in front of the other. And the peer support program started off as a single program in a single department. We have a Scholars of Wellness program, and one of our scholars, created a peer support program in the Ob-Gyn department of one of our hospitals. 00:10:01:07 - 00:10:21:12 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. That's where this started. And as we learned about the value that peer support can provide and how one would stand up a program in that one department, that one department turned into a hospital. And then as we figured out how you spread to a hospital, that one hospital turned into 11. And that was all for docs and then all the docs, 00:10:21:12 - 00:10:41:17 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. we understood what to do for the APPs. The APPs turned into the nurses, the nurses turned into the pharmacist, and the pharmacist turned into the trainees. And so I don't believe in sort of trying to do it all at once, because generally when I've tried to do that, I do nothing. And so I just we just try to continue to, to grow and provide as many resources we can. 00:10:41:20 - 00:11:10:09 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. One program that I didn't mention, earlier, that was a big part of this. And if you have to start somewhere, you know, we all have to sort of show utilization, an impact. And the truth is, we can build all this stuff, but people may not utilize it because they don't feel safe to utilize it because, historically, there has been A) stigma, and B) real repercussions for seeking out mental health care, for health care workers that are worried about licensure issues. 00:11:10:09 - 00:11:34:20 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And so, we used the Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation audit toolkit to help change the language on our credentialing forms to make sure that there would be no stigma for seeking out mental health care. And that was in conjunction with the state of Illinois. Also changing, their verbiage on their licensure, because obviously you sort of have to do both. 00:11:34:20 - 00:11:54:03 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Otherwise it's still important to do it locally. But when you have it both, that's when the research shows that our health care workers are more likely to utilize these sorts of resources. We made those changes incredibly easy in some ways. I don't like to say any change is easy, but it was easy in the sense that we had the playbook on how to do it. 00:11:54:06 - 00:12:19:08 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And then we communicated it to folks to say, hey, we're, we're doing things and we're serious about this. And, I think that builds trust, so that the, the other stuff also can be heard in the vein of, hey, you know what? Now I can use that stuff. And so that's where I would say you should always start just because it'll be difficult to sustain other things if people don't feel like they can use the resources that you provide them. 00:12:19:08 - 00:12:47:22 Emma Jellen So I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with you for about, I don't know, two and a half, almost three years now, longer than that with the center. But, two and a half, almost three years now on, the APA Foundation Center for Workplace Mental Health Frontline Connect initiative. And you know we recently released our toolkit Improving Mental Health Care for Clinicians: Leading Interventions for your Workforce, which you can find at Frontlineconnect.org. 00:12:47:24 - 00:13:24:10 Emma Jellen But I wonder if you can share and speak to those folks who are like you, who are a leader at a hospital health system or a health care institution who are, you know, a chief wellness officer who are largely responsible for the mental health and well-being of their workforce. I wonder if you could speak to them and talk a little bit about what the toolkit we created together is, and how they can find value in it as they again embark or continue or, you know, this journey to really just increase access to mental health care for those who need it. 00:13:24:12 - 00:13:48:09 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Absolutely. And, you know, it's been my pleasure to work on Frontline Connect. And what I would say is for me in the role I sit, we spent quite a bit of time, I would say over a decade, sort of saying what needs to happen, and why does it need to happen? Action needs to be taking around wellness and mental health for our workforce. 00:13:48:11 - 00:14:06:21 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. What I was looking for, and what sort of drew me to the project was how and what. I'm a coach. And so how and what are the questions I care about. What are people actually able to do in the real world? What are they already doing that they've stood up that's making a difference? 00:14:06:23 - 00:14:28:15 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And that's what we try to do with this virtual video toolkit - I just didn't have time to read 300 pages, I just got to be honest with you. I wanted 15 minutes for someone to give me the seed of an idea of a program that they're using, because I can't - none of us, I think, can adopt a program just out of the box. 00:14:28:22 - 00:14:48:16 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. We all have our own cultures. We all have our own resources. We all have our own leadership. And so I don't need you to tell me every single detail because it's not going to matter to me. It won't work that way for me. I just need some of the basic ideas of what are sort of these programs that could address "X" problem? 00:14:48:18 - 00:15:18:07 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And once I hear that, I can then take it through my lens and say, for us, we do have this need or actually, you know, we're doing okay on that thing, but if we have that need, how can I take the broad strokes of this program and apply it to my needs here at Northwestern? As you know, we identified the sort of exemplars across the country of people doing programs or having resources that were broadly available that we wanted people to know about, that we wanted to raise awareness about that. 00:15:18:07 - 00:15:39:14 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. We get a chance to help our colleagues show up about their programs. And they were really gracious in sharing their programs, how they launched it, some of the key learnings from their launches. And as we continue to record more and more of these video case studies, I found that, hey, you know what? Like, why can't we do four or five of these? 00:15:39:17 - 00:15:56:24 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. We're pretty close and we know something about a little bit about a lot of these. And so can we take that next step. And you've heard me talk about the influence of positive peer pressures. I can get competitive. And if I'm like, hey, this other health care system is doing this, why not us? 00:15:56:27 - 00:16:09:00 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. That fuels me. And, I believe that if, frankly, I use positive pressure on myself without knowing it. And in a nutshell, to do some of these social programs all at once in the campaign that I mentioned. 00:16:09:02 - 00:16:32:04 Rebecca Chickey I so agree with you. I love the toolkit. I was honored to be present with the official launching of the toolkit and the fact that you can have digestible, inspirational knowledge transferred to you in a 5 to 10 minute video if they're even that long in some cases. It's just wonderful. And it is the environment that we live in now. 00:16:32:06 - 00:16:58:23 Rebecca Chickey We are all fast paced and so bite sized learning is wonderful. Now the reason we're doing this podcast: bite sized learning. So as we bring the podcast to a close, this is always a challenging question so get ready. This is your Jeopardy question. If you had to pick, what are the three things that you want the listeners to really lock in on that you've said today, that you've shared today, you know, is it the toolkit that is a phenomenal resource to inspire? 00:16:58:25 - 00:17:06:24 Rebecca Chickey Is it if you just start at one small unit, at one hospital, you can grow from there. 00:17:06:27 - 00:17:27:22 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. I think for me, the first one is sometimes what I hear is people say, I think we're doing alright on mental health. Okay, that's too broad to me. What do you mean by that? Which level of prevention are we talking about? Are we talking about prevention at that primary level? Are we talking about you have good amount of resources at that distress level? 00:17:27:25 - 00:17:52:21 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Have you really checked to see if your folks in your workforce have good access to mental health care for mental health conditions? And how do you know? And so, really assessing current state and the spectrum of needs as it relates to wellness and mental health conditions, I think is important. Because what I think you might find is you are probably doing great in one of those buckets, maybe two of those buckets. 00:17:52:21 - 00:18:11:10 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. But I don't know that many people that are doing great in every single bucket and even us, there's still gaps for us. And so you have to know where you're at and where you really are sparse in your resources, because to me that's where you have, you know, the opportunity for the greatest impact. So that would be number one. 00:18:11:12 - 00:18:35:27 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Number two, I'm biased, but I do hope the people look at Frontline Connect. There's a lot of people's good work there. And I believe in acceleration. And, I don't really believe that my brain needs to be that smart. I should be learning from the best of other people. And I think it'll accelerate your journey about the options out there and the places where you may be able to make a difference. 00:18:35:27 - 00:18:52:27 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. Even if after you do step one, you say, oh, I think I'm doing okay. Then if you see some of these and issues like, oh, you know what, I actually don't have any of those thing that may actually remind you to take a look at, you know, at the same you don't know what you don't know, you don't know what's out there. 00:18:52:29 - 00:19:12:19 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. And so it'll be hard to judge what are some of the gaps with that without looking at some of these best practices? Number three, I would say this is the time. What I failed to mention earlier is we had looked at changing our credentialing language five years ago, and I couldn't get it done. I couldn't figure out how to do it. 00:19:12:19 - 00:19:38:24 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. I couldn't really figure out who the players were. I don't know if it was top of mind for people. This is a different time. And so for those of you that have maybe tried some of this stuff in the past and it's been shot down or there's been blocks or barriers, timing is everything in change management. And so this is the time to take a look because what the disaster psychiatrist and psychologist will tell you is that it's not during the pandemic, it's not during a disaster that this stuff matters. 00:19:38:26 - 00:20:20:27 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. It's the aftermath where especially the folks that actually experienced and responded to disasters - in this case the pandemic - actually feel it. And long after society has moved on, the folks that actually responded, whether it's military or in our case the health care workforce, that's when these symptoms emerge. And so recovery is needed and potentially treatment is needed now. And so making sure that, you know, we don't get sort of seduced or trapped in this idea of, oh, the pandemic's long over, this is what we know about pandemic recovery or disaster recovery, I should say, is this is the time where those symptoms need to be, we need to be able to 00:20:20:27 - 00:20:25:19 Gaurava Agarwal, M.D. look out for them and, aggressively provide the resources to treat them because they are treatable. 00:20:25:22 - 00:20:47:19 Rebecca Chickey The time is now. If there is a sliver of a silver lining of the pandemic, I think it is that it really has opened people's eyes. It's reduced some of the stigma. And it's also focused on the true need for these services across the board, but particularly for our health care workforce who are on the front lines every single day. 00:20:47:21 - 00:21:08:14 Rebecca Chickey So Dr. Gaurav Agarwal and Emma Jellen, thank you so much for being here today. And then for additional resources from the AHA, go to AHA.org/behavioral health. Thank you for your time and expertise and for the great work that you do each and every day. Gratitude. 00:21:08:16 - 00:21:16:26 Tom Haederle Thanks for listening to Advancing Health. Please subscribe and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. </details> </div> Wed, 09 Oct 2024 02:03:28 -0500 Mental Health First Aid Sparking Social Connection and Community With Indiana University Health /advancing-health-podcast/2024-02-14-sparking-social-connection-and-community-indiana-university-health In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a shocking 80-plus page advisory declaring loneliness and social isolation as reaching epidemic levels in American society. Ready to act, Indiana University Health was among the first large health systems to develop a care network to spark social connection and community. In this conversation, Jay Foster, vice president of spiritual care with Indiana University Health, and Shadreck Kamwendo, director of the Congregational Care Network, talk about the difference the network is making in the lives of Indiana residents and beyond, and the resources available for those in need.<hr><div></div><div class="raw-html-embed"> <details class="transcript"> <summary> <h2 title="Click here to open/close the transcript."> View Transcript &nbsp; </h2> </summary> 00;00;00;22 - 00;00;23;20 Tom Haederle In 2023, the Surgeon General issued an 80 plus page report that shocked and dismayed many people. It found that loneliness - social isolation - is epidemic in American society and carries very real physical as well as mental costs. The report compared the effect of loneliness on health to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. With locations all over the state of Indiana, 00;00;23;23 - 00;00;43;14 Tom Haederle Indiana University Health was among the first large health systems to recognize and act on the healing effects of social connection and community. 00;00;43;17 - 00;01;09;08 Tom Haederle Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the 黑料正能量 Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. "We are made to be in community." That philosophy is the guiding force behind Indiana University Health's Congregational Care Network created to address loneliness and social isolation. In this podcast, hosted by Jordan Steiger, senior program manager of Clinical Affairs and Workforce with the AHA, 00;01;09;08 - 00;01;24;06 Tom Haederle Jay Foster, vice president of Spiritual Care with Indiana University Health, and Shadreck Kamwendo Director of Congregational Care Network, talk about the difference the program is making in the lives of area residents. Let's join the discussion. 00;01;24;09 - 00;01;42;03 Jordan Steiger So I'd like to start the conversation just by learning a little bit more about IU Health and really what the role of a chaplain is at IU health or in a hospital system, just in case there's a listener out there that doesn't really know. So Jay can you tell us what a chaplain does in your organization? 00;01;42;06 - 00;02;06;13 Jay Foster Hey, Jordan, thanks so much for having us. And I like to think of it that there's things that chaplains do and things we try to be. And I'll start with the second one. It turns out that spirituality is really important in how people understand and cope with their illness. When folks are in the hospital, some people find that their faith is the most important thing to them, however 00;02;06;14 - 00;02;36;07 Jay Foster they define that faith. Others find themselves questioning that. And so chaplains try to be someone who can walk with a person of whatever faith, religious tradition or not they may or may not identify with. But to accompany them on that health journey. Some of the things we do, some of them are kind of obvious, maybe. We get called to most deaths to be with loved ones of family members who are breathing. 00;02;36;10 - 00;03;12;04 Jay Foster We get called the most traumas when loved ones show up and are understandably distressed. Some are maybe a little less obvious. We do things like advance care planning. We help with ethics consultation, work with persons who are having difficulty adjusting to their illness and help them identify their spiritual, emotional resources for coping with their illness better. And then finally, we provide a lot of support for our team members because we're embedded with team members. 00;03;12;06 - 00;03;30;08 Jay Foster They find that they can have a level of trust, and sometimes we can help that team member get to the right door for more help. Maybe we can walk them to if they need to work with a therapist, if they need work with someone in H.R. or someone on our legal team, we can help them get to the right door. 00;03;30;10 - 00;03;50;17 Jordan Steiger It's a really important role within the hospital system and the care team. And you know, what I'm hearing you say is that you are really that emotional guidance. You are there to help people walk through this, this experience. And we know that some of the experiences that our patients and families can have with health care can be a little bit isolating and a little lonely. 00;03;50;20 - 00;04;05;00 Jordan Steiger And we know that people are lonely in the community across the country. So, Shadreck I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the issue of loneliness and social isolation, and then also tell us why hospital leaders should care about it. 00;04;05;02 - 00;04;32;17 Shadreck Kamwendo Yeah, that's a great question there. I think social isolation and loneliness has been found to be associated with hospital increase and hospital readmissions. Jay and I and others always talk about that. You know, patients come here to get treatment and they go home to get well and if they don't have those tools or things to make them well like community, they'll come right back to the hospitals. 00;04;32;19 - 00;04;46;21 Shadreck Kamwendo So it is in the interest of all health care systems, hospital leaders. We are made to be in community. And for us to do better is to have everything and the community around us who wishes us well to get better. 00;04;46;24 - 00;05;14;13 Jay Foster Thanks, Shadrack, for for making that point. I'd love to amplify just a bit. Two things. When we were trying to figure out where we as a spiritual care department would focus our work, we chose to focus on social isolation and loneliness because it's something that chaplains know how to do well, as you were saying, Jordan, But it's also something that congregations excel with and that's providing care for the sick and the shut-in. 00;05;14;16 - 00;05;41;21 Jay Foster But the second thing and this was this is now much more well-known in our community, but as the surgeon general pointed out in recent studies, this is an epidemic in our country, isolation and loneliness. And it had it's a biological condition. I mean, it has actual impact on our spiritual and physical health. He compared it to smoking about 15 cigarettes a day. 00;05;41;23 - 00;06;09;21 Jordan Steiger So really, you know, affects physical, mental, sociological, all of those outcomes. It's an important thing that we should all be focusing on. And I know at IU Health you have created a program that really has focused on reducing loneliness and social isolation in your community. And that's why we're here to talk today about your congregational care network. So Shadrack, I'd love for you to tell me a little bit more about the program, how it got started, how you fund it. 00;06;09;24 - 00;06;11;20 Jordan Steiger Just anything you want to share. 00;06;11;22 - 00;06;38;20 Shadreck Kamwendo Yeah, I'd love to do that. Our ill health care system. One of our goals is to make Indiana healthier, a healthier state. And one of the things that they see IU health system established in 2018 was a community impact investment grant. So when we thought about starting this program, loneliness and social isolation is one of the things that we'll focus with the partnership with the chaplaincy. 00;06;38;22 - 00;07;08;18 Shadreck Kamwendo So we got funding from the IU Health Foundation through this grant, a community investment grant to start this program to study it here in Marion County, in the Indianapolis area, to find eight congregations and two congregations in Monroe County, Bloomington area. So we got started and Jay and others thought, how are we going to train the congregations? Who is going to be journeying with our neighbors? 00;07;08;21 - 00;07;38;21 Shadreck Kamwendo So we chose a pathway training called Companionship Training that we provide to their congregations that are part of our program. This is a four-hour training. We talk about hospitality, just active listening, just being present is a deliberate admission of being present. And they ask for us to the connectors who are part of this program is to just to make phone calls about an hour a week for about 12 weeks. 00;07;38;23 - 00;07;57;08 Shadreck Kamwendo And in that, you get to learn a little bit about what's going on in just being a friend and showing some love and saying, hey, we're not always about the disease that you have or a diagnosis you have. You are a human person, you're a neighbor, and we want to support you through this process. 00;07;57;11 - 00;08;20;07 Jordan Steiger Wonderful. And I know just from speaking to both of you and learning more about your work, that the outcomes from this program have been unbelievably great for your workforce, for your patients, and for the volunteers that are part of the congregations in your community. So Jay, could you tell us a little bit more about how this has positively impacted your workforce at IU health? 00;08;20;09 - 00;08;51;19 Jay Foster Maybe the main way is that it provides our team members with a sense of purpose. We are a values based organization and one of our core values is is connecting to purpose and spirituality. We actually find that the more persons are connected with their with their purpose, their North Star, the healthier they are. So that works well for our team members that we're helping patients connect with a higher sense of purpose. 00;08;51;21 - 00;09;11;27 Jay Foster One of our hospital presidents said to me recently, said Jay, I just love this program. And here's the reason why: hospitals really aren't set up to be wellness communities. Now, we could argue that one way or the other, but that was his perspective. He said, But the community is where folks need to focus in order to really work on their wellness. 00;09;11;29 - 00;09;34;23 Jay Foster But what you've managed to do here, not me, Jay, but you the CC and team - is help build that bridge way so that we identify a patient. One of our physicians connects with a patient that they love and they see that this person is lonely or isolated. Connects him with the chaplain. The chaplain connects them with a congregation in their neighborhood. 00;09;34;25 - 00;10;00;18 Jay Foster And over that 12 week period that Shadreck was talking about, that individual find some companionship and hopefully gets really strongly connected with a broader sense of community and ultimately with something bigger than their than their illness. It's like, okay, I'm not just my illness, I'm all these other things. And how can I actualize that even while I'm coping with this particular illness? 00;10;00;20 - 00;10;20;04 Jordan Steiger I love that you are connecting this back to purpose. And I think, you know, health care providers and people that work in health care really are drawn to that sense of purpose in their work. And so having this avenue, I think, is a really smart, beneficial program, I think, for your workforce. But let's talk about patients, because that's really what this program is about. 00;10;20;06 - 00;10;25;11 Jordan Steiger So, Shadreck, tell us about some of the positive outcomes that patients have seen. 00;10;25;14 - 00;11;02;03 Shadreck Kamwendo Yeah, So most of our patients is their stories that we we tend to hear coming from the our connectors, you know, in the companions, the relationship that are being formed. I'll give you an example. We had a companion that was being followed by a congregation and we were delivering food on her porch, you know, raw food on her porch, and she confided to her connector and say, you know, you're providing me food, but my stove does not work. 00;11;02;05 - 00;11;24;10 Shadreck Kamwendo So the congregation was able to get the men from the church on a Saturday morning, went and got her a new stove. And she was able to get that nutritious food that we have. We wouldn't have known some of the struggles that are going on into her household. So that program, supported by their own neighbors, makes a difference. 00;11;24;12 - 00;11;55;20 Shadreck Kamwendo Another example was a companion that we met here at the hospital that had moved from St. Louis because she has been widowed for several years and she came to live here in Indianapolis with her daughter. But she said I had and haven't made friendship with anybody. Can this program connect me to a friend? And we said yes. She said, Because of all the friends I have on my daughters friends, I live my life, 50 years of life in Saint Louis, and I'm in the new city. 00;11;55;20 - 00;12;15;11 Shadreck Kamwendo So I needed support and care. And now she has friends that will go to farmer's market with her. And that makes a difference. That's the wellness we are talking about. And we have other companions in our program. They have all the resources. They just want somebody to talk to. You can only watch TV for so long. 00;12;15;14 - 00;12;36;14 Shadreck Kamwendo So as I said earlier, we go home to get well. And those are the things that will make you go well, because if you don't have those things, you're going to return back to the hospital. So we have seen a lot of positivity coming from the companions, the patients that I, you know, program. But also let me add the transformation that is taking place for those connectors. 00;12;36;14 - 00;12;55;23 Shadreck Kamwendo The volunteers now, they are starting to learn what's happening in their neighborhood, that they have friends that are food insecure, they have friends that have transportation problems to get to the appointment. And how are we going to come alongside making sure that they get to the right care at the right time in order to be well? 00;12;55;26 - 00;13;24;00 Jordan Steiger I think you bring up some great points, you know, individual outcomes that are improved, community outcomes that are improved. None of that would have happened without IU health stepping in to make some of those connections. So I think that's a really good lesson for others listening and that hospitals really can serve as that social connector in communities. Jay, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how your partnership with local congregations has strengthened the services you're able to provide to patients? 00;13;24;00 - 00;13;32;27 Jordan Steiger Because I don't know if all of our, you know, member hospitals and health systems would think maybe to go to a congregation for this kind of program. 00;13;32;29 - 00;14;19;11 Jay Foster So a couple of ways. The first is a recognition that many of these congregations have been in their neighborhoods for decades, sometimes hundreds of years. They are trusted sources of information, of wellness in many communities where people go to to to learn about all of their needs, including their health care and social needs. And so an operating philosophy of ours is to really partner with congregations and let them teach us: How do we provide better care for your neighbors, help us help you do that, rather than coming in and saying, let us tell you what we as a health system can do for you or can't do for you. 00;14;19;13 - 00;14;41;09 Jay Foster So we begin from that that point of view of appreciative inquiry. Second, you know, we talk a lot and health care about physician extenders or provider extenders. And so in that way and this model, the chaplain is up and the outpatient clinic is an extension for that provider. And the congregation is an extension of that chaplain. 00;14;41;11 - 00;15;01;11 Jay Foster And here's the way that works. Quick story. We had a patient was just loved by her physician and they had a great relationship, just loved by their social worker, growing relationship with their chaplain. But it was their connector who they said, you know what? My oldest son has moved back in with me and my expenses are going up, so I've cut back on my medications. 00;15;01;14 - 00;15;25;11 Jay Foster So it works both ways. The connector then reached back upstream to be able to say to to that physician ultimately and that social worker, hey, here's the problem. And they were able to come in and make adjustments so that her medication wasn't compromised and her budget stayed on track. The other thing is, is it more of a relational level? 00;15;25;11 - 00;15;44;29 Jay Foster Our system, like all systems or like many health care systems, struggles to be a trusted source of information in the community. As we build these person to person relationships with clergy and the congregation of all faiths, they know they can pick up the phone and call Shadrach or their connector or their chaplain and have somebody on the other end to listen. 00;15;44;29 - 00;16;04;07 Jay Foster So the pathway works both ways. The physician is a extender for that congregation. The other thing I would come back and amplify from your earlier question, if I could, I'm surprised that my friend Shadrech didn't jump all over this. Shadrach is like the only non-chaplain on our team. He's got to put up with a bunch of us. 00;16;04;09 - 00;16;36;04 Jay Foster He's a population health MBA guy, but thanks to Shadrech, we've developed some really strong utilization metrics that he's built a Power BI dashboard with our population health team. This has now been vetted through our pretty rigorous statistician and we're comfortable saying that we've been able to see a 4% reduction in hospital readmissions for CCN patients compared to our control group. 00;16;36;04 - 00;17;13;20 Jay Foster And we've seen remarkable reductions in ED utilization and a complimentary rise in family medicine and other appointments. That's just the thing you want to see after an intervention like this. We've also provided pre and post inventories of a validated instrument called the care field, Loneliness Scale. We use the abbreviated version. This demonstrated statistically significant improvements in a person's sense of feeling connected and less lonely. 00;17;13;20 - 00;17;20;00 Jay Foster I feel like someone's on my side. I feel like I know who I can call if I get in trouble. 00;17;20;02 - 00;17;47;27 Jordan Steiger Absolutely. And I was going to ask about any data that you had to share. And so that is a perfect explanation. And I think, you know, across the country, we see, you know, hospitals and health systems struggling with things like ED utilization with readmissions. So I think that's something that resonates and it's, I think, incredible that you've been able to reduce some of that utilization because we know people seek those services or go to the hospital because they don't have other places to go. 00;17;47;27 - 00;18;08;06 Jordan Steiger It's not necessarily that they're needing care all the time, sometimes, but not all the time. So as we start to wrap up our conversation, Shadreck, if you and Jay have inspired anybody out there to think about how they could maybe adapt your program to their community or their hospital or health system, what kind of advice would you give them? 00;18;08;08 - 00;18;37;10 Shadreck Kamwendo I think the choice of working with chaplaincy was really profound because they have a little superpower of being gentle and bring trust to their room. And if hospitals can, making sure that the chaplains are at the table as they develop some of these programs, because usually they will have a little bit of time to sit in their room with the patient and the really deeply at least seen what's going on. 00;18;37;12 - 00;19;07;27 Shadreck Kamwendo So that's what we have done here into making sure that the chaplains are at the core of all the strategies of how we can help our communities. So they bring that that power. So I would encourage different health care systems and making sure that they are really bringing their chaplains to the table as they develop new programs to figure out how they can help to communicate, but also to encourage patients to be part of them. 00;19;08;00 - 00;19;24;11 Jordan Steiger I think that's great advice. The chaplaincy and social work and all of those those professions I think are so powerful when they are used in the right way. So I think that's great advice and something to consider. Jay, as we close out anything you'd like to add? 00;19;24;13 - 00;19;45;04 Jay Foster So one thought, we focus an awful lot on social isolation and loneliness, and that is absolutely the primary intervention is that we give an hour of time or more during this intensive 12 week period to try to help people find community. But if I spent an hour listening to you, I'm going to learn all kinds of things. I'm going to learn that there's food insecurity. 00;19;45;04 - 00;20;06;18 Jay Foster I'm going to learn that that there is domestic violence. I'm going to learn that there's substance misuse. And so what we've really worked hard on is to provide training and encouragement for our connectors and resources to know how to help people get to the right door and then stay connected with them after they've made it to the right door. 00;20;06;20 - 00;20;20;21 Jay Foster So if they get to a behavioral health therapist, they get to the kind of food and security concerns that they need, but then they stay connected because the ultimate intervention is around providing that love and friendship as there is our coping with your illness. 00;20;20;24 - 00;20;44;20 Jordan Steiger I think that's a great place to conclude and thank you both for your time today and for sharing your story with other members of the 黑料正能量 Association membership. I think this is a program and an approach that could be used in a lot of different communities and kind of adapted to that community need. Jay, as you mentioned, you know, taking that that approach of like letting the community tell you what they need from, from that, I think that's a huge takeaway. 00;20;44;23 - 00;20;55;13 Jordan Steiger So thank you so much. We will make sure to link some information about the Congregational Care network so people can learn about it if they're interested. And again, thank you so much. </details> </div>&nbsp; Tue, 13 Feb 2024 23:43:12 -0600 Mental Health First Aid AHA Expresses Support for the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531) /lettercomment/2023-12-07-aha-expresses-support-support-patients-and-communities-reauthorization-act-hr-4531 December 7, 2023 <table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>The Honorable Brett Guthrie U.S. House of Representatives 2434 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515</td> <td>The Honorable Ann M. Kuster U.S. House of Representatives 2201 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dear Representatives Guthrie and Kuster: On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers 鈥� and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups, the 黑料正能量 Association (AHA) is pleased to support your legislation, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531). The AHA believes physical and mental health care are inextricably linked, and everyone deserves access to high-quality behavioral health care. We thank you for your leadership on legislation that will expand access to vital behavioral health services. Specifically, we are pleased to see this bill includes provisions to permanently extend Medicaid coverage for medication assisted treatments and to permanently extend the option for state Medicaid programs to receive federal matching payments for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment provided in certain institutions for mental diseases (IMDs) for up to 30 days over a 12-month period. For our members, this flexibility allows them to ensure patients receive the specific care they need. Both provisions take important steps forward in increasing access to SUD treatment services and reducing the stigma associated with seeking out the help that is needed. SUD treatment requires access to the full continuum of care, including inpatient care, partial hospitalization, residential treatment and outpatient services. Different types of patients require different clinical services from across the care continuum, and the IMD exclusion currently excludes critical elements of that care continuum. IMD policy was established at a time when SUDs were not considered medical conditions on the same level as physical health conditions. We thank you for your leadership in beginning to dismantle this discriminatory policy. As you know, there is still more work to be done to reduce barriers to receiving and administering behavioral health services, and we look forward to working with you on these future efforts. Sincerely, /s/ Lisa Kidder Hrobsky Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Political Affairs Thu, 07 Dec 2023 08:53:13 -0600 Mental Health First Aid AHA podcast: Rural health system utilizes collaborations to increase integrated mental health care /news/headline/2021-05-27-aha-podcast-rural-health-system-utilizes-collaborations-increase In this podcast marking <a href="/mental-health-awareness-month">Mental Health Awareness Month</a>, Shane McGuire, CEO of Columbia County Health System in Dayton, Wash., discusses the hospital district鈥檚 collaborative work with the University of Washington鈥檚 psychiatry program and its Advancing Integrated Mental Health Center, which focuses on creating care models between primary care providers and their mental health care counterparts. <a href="/advancing-health-podcast/2021-05-27-rural-health-system-utilizes-collaborations-increase-integrated">Listen</a>&nbsp;to learn how well-conceived partnerships helped expand mental health care to this rural community by integrating physical and mental health Thu, 27 May 2021 15:35:15 -0500 Mental Health First Aid Blog: Importance of mental health first aid training rises during COVID-19 pandemic /news/blog/2020-08-27-blog-importance-mental-health-first-aid-training-rises-during-covid-19 What is mental health first aid? Well, first aid 鈥� the physical type 鈥� is exactly what the name implies: the first attempt to bring aid to someone who is injured. End of story. Many of you have probably taken a physical first aid course 鈥� learning how to provide the first attempt to address bleeding, burns, poisoning, shock and respiratory emergencies. Thankfully, more people are now realizing mental health鈥檚 importance. Still, they may not know what to do when someone needs first aid for their mental health. Today, experts are concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the mental health of both those with pre-COVID-19 conditions, and those in whom the pandemic has triggered a new behavioral health disorder.&nbsp; COVID-19 Pandemic 101 Let鈥檚 talk about stress. Everyone you encounter is somewhere on a spectrum of needing self-help. Our nation is facing multiple crises, 24 hours a day. Then add all of the typical expected responsibilities, such as caring for children, whether they鈥檙e still in utero or long since moved out of your home. Then, if you are the adult child of aging parents, you have the stress of caring for them. Even in 鈥渘ormal鈥� times it never stops 鈥� the constant caring for others. But now we are in a full-blown pandemic, with people who must self-isolate, with no visitors or caregivers in hospitals or long-term care units. Our contact with others is extremely limited: no handshakes, no hugs, no tactile reassurance from one person to another. Add to this unemployment, the cost of groceries and medications, and the excessive work hours that employed essential personnel are undertaking just to keep businesses going during these trying times. Hope in Training So what to do when you think someone is showing signs of mental illness or using substances in a more frequent and/or harmful manner? <a href="https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/">Mental Health First Aid</a> training has been created to teach the skills to respond to the signs of mental illness and substance use. Mental Health First Aid may not include gauze and gloves, but it is a real thing. Being in health care for over 42 years, I know Mental Health First Aid is valuable, necessary and ever evolving into a basic orientation plan for all, but particularly for persons in health care. At my hospital Mental Health First Aid a mandatory program for all leadership and employees coming into our workforce. The MHFA program is designed for first responders, teachers, social workers, police officer and now hospital staff, and is now being offered in a virtual format. When your patient is given a cancer diagnosis or a staff member must confront a person that her loved one has passed, who better than hospital staff to give these people mental health first aid to get through shock and life-altering issues? Mental health first aid is needed every day on the inside of some of the most hallowed halls of what we call health care. Still need convincing that training is right for your hospital or health system? Check out this <a href="/webinar-recordings/2018-08-03-webinar-st-vincents-jacksonville-roi-mental-health-first-aid">webinar recording</a> featuring a collaborative effort at Ascension St. Vincent鈥檚 in Jacksonville, Fla., to train 10,000 individuals in MHFA. Or, check out this <a href="https://www.ashhra.org/mental-health-first-aid-health-care-helping-all-us-be-better-humans">webinar</a> from the American Society for Health Care Human Resources Administration, AHA鈥檚 Behavioral Health Services and the National Council for Behavioral Health. &nbsp; Katherine Bunting is chief executive officer at Fairfield Memorial Hospital in Fairfield, Ill. Thu, 27 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0500 Mental Health First Aid