Calling All Docs! Code BH: Behavioral Health
July is the first month of training for resident physicians and commonly known as “not the time to need emergent medical care” in case a newbie doctor is assigned to care for you. I still remember the feeling of dread as my classmate teased, “Ooh..Jen. You’re first up! You got Internal Medicine call on July 1!” Yikes.
Day 1 of orientation as a “real doctor” was our ACLS class, Advanced Cardiac Life Support. ACLS is a framework that healthcare professionals follow in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest. The team works together, with clearly defined roles and analyzes complex situations collaboratively in high pressure situations.
My days of running codes are now behind me. I spend my time in the office, rather than the hospital. But I am seeing a different “emergency” in health care. I’m talking about the crisis of unmet behavioral health needs. Primary care delivers the vast majority of behavioral health care in this country. But without behavioral health support, we may feel like we raced to the room where the “code” was called, only to find that no one else showed up.
We need to redesign our siloed health systems. We need to respond to the "mental health crisis" as a TEAM, rather than as isolated clinicians. This is called Integrated Care. We need to stop thinking the "solution" to the mental health crisis is somehow so complex that we don't know where to start. We go back to basics and pull together a team of people and work together. I’d love to see a future where Integrated Care is just as foundational to our Day 1 medical training as ACLS. So the next generation of physicians calls to mind a team-based framework for behavioral health just as reflexively as CPR for a heart attack.
This July, as the next generation of doctors walk in the door, let’s not over-complicate behavioral health. Team-based care works. Treating the body without including the mind won’t work as well as whole person care. Trying to go it alone won’t work as well as being a part of a team. So let’s welcome our new teammates in family medicine and get to work.
Want to know more? Check out CFHA.net, the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association website to learn how you can support integrating physical and behavioral health, called Integrated Care.
IAFP Member Jennifer Thomas, MD, FASAM is a family medicine and addiction medicine physician and Medical Director for Integrated Behavioral Health at Morris Hospital in Morris, IL. Dr. Thomas is a board member of the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine and also serves as National Medical Co-Director for Integrated Care at CFHA, the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association. CFHA is a national, non-profit member organization supporting all healthcare professionals who believe in breaking down healthcare silos and supporting whole person health.
