Electronic Winter 2024 | Issue 61
Advancing Collaborative Care: IPS and APA Members Attend the Northwestern Medicine West Health Accelerator Event
By: Susan Scherer, MD and Jasleen Singh, MD
On Wednesday 11/20/2024 from 9 am - 12 noon at the “Hyatt Centric Chicago” in downtown Chicago, Northwestern hosted a launch event for the Northwestern Medicine (NM) West Health Accelerator Program. This event was attended by many, including Illinois Psychiatric Society's (IPS) very own Drs. Kenneth Busch, MD, Susan Scherer, MD, and Jasleen Singh, MD. Dr. Lisa Rosenthal, MD, Chief of NM CL Psychiatry, introduced the event, saying this groundbreaking initiative will “make integrating primary care with psychiatry “not just the right thing but the easy thing to do”. This is a multi-year initiative that expands the collaborative behavioral program to 5 regions with a goal to scale, optimize, and embed best practices
More welcoming remarks followed from:
Sachin Patel, MD, PhD, Chair of Behavioral Health, Northwestern Medicine
Patrick J Towne, MD, internist, Comprehensive Primary Care, at NM in Winfield/Dupage
Shelley Lyford, CEO of West Health. She reported that Mary and Gary West had invested $500M in geriatric EDs and were funding this “national model” in 75 adult primary care institutions.
Andy Keller, PhD (psychologist) CEO of Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute talked of this collaborative care development as the biggest advance in mental health care since thorazine in 1956. Prior advances in mental health care: Dorothea Dix advocacy for asylums in 1857, Freud outpatient treatment in 1890, then thorazine in 1956. He noted that now, with mental health screening in the primary doctor’s office, “we can detect illness before you know you’re sick”
The event also featured several guest speakers. The first session was a panel of speakers that included:
Rinad S. Beidas, PhD, NM Professor and Chair of Medical Social Sciences
Matt Richards, LCSW MDiv, Deputy Commissioner Chicago Department of Public Health
Catherine Counard, MD MPH family doctor, State Medical Office, Illinois Department of Public Health, “Healthy IL 2028”
David Albert, PhD, Director of DMH at Illinois Department of Human Services
It was noted that per the Healthy Illinois 2028 plan, mental health has been identified as one of the major initiatives, with a growing need for youth mental health support also noted. Through a collaborative care model, mental health care is normalized by incorporating it as part of routine office procedure. However, there are challenges. They discussed challenges such as workforce shortage, funding to help MH workers reach living wage, increasing number of federally funded community health centers, the need for specialist support of primary care providers to handle acuity, increasing public awareness that help exists (such as 988). They also mentioned the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative (led by Dana Weiner, PhD) which has a portal under development and is working to coordinate the work of 6 state agencies.
The next guest speaker was Matthew Press MD, MSc, Internal Medicine at UPenn. He joined the event virtually, and stated that doctors have sometimes been afraid to ask patients about mental health, but that the collaborative care model is the “lifeboat” and a key strategy to improve wellness and retention. He noted that if you “follow the recipe”, collaborative care reduces burden on primary care physicians, is clinically effective, operationally doable, reduces cost, and helps conditions, but buy-in from both sides is essential. Requires EHR and financial help to start.
Subsequently there was another panel that included:
Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD, Director, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, Immediate Past president of APA
Kristin Kroeger, APA Chief of Advocacy, Policy and Practice Advancement
Both spoke eloquently of bringing mental and physical health systems together, to improve patient care and population health and workforce satisfaction, while lowering costs, and raising the value of healthcare dollars. Many impressive statistics were mentioned. For example, Dr. Brendel identified dada showing that people with mental illness have poorer outcomes, live 25-35 years shorter, and noted that the collaborative care model is targeted to treat common diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, substance use, and sleep issues. Kristen Kroeger discussed grants involved in promoting the collaborative care model and noted that 63 national organizations support collaborative/integrated care models. They also discussed the promotion of behavioral health coalitions between primary care organizations, payers, academia, and psychiatrists. During their presentations, they also spoke highly of the Illinois Psychiatric Society, identifying that IPS has been "instrumental in passing model legislation" and commended IPS for working on collaborative care. They encouraged others to reach out to IPS for coalition building and legislative initiatives in Springfield.