Issue link: https://blog.providence.org/i/958890
Increasing access to integrated care is at the heart of our mission and requires increased clinical focus, operations and access paired with new financing models. To improve access and outcomes and enhance what our communities and country offer for mental health, we must bring mental health and substance use services to the places that people most often present with needs and change the bifurcated funding systems and policies that perpetuate care in silos. CLINICAL TRANSFORMATION Caring for the whole person— spirit, mind and body—shifts the question from "What's the matter with you?" to "What matters to you?" 6 Health care, as experienced today, is fragmented and exists in silos. In most settings, despite a strong evidence base for integrated care, mental health is wholly separate and distinct from care for physical health. This structure fails to address whole-person health, undercuts prevention, limits treatment effectiveness, impedes access and increases the costs that drive unaffordability. Many of us who have sought care know the difficulty and frustration encountered when seeking mental health or addiction services. In one recent survey, half of the respondents reported that they did not know how to access quality affordable mental health services for themselves or a loved one. 7 So, it comes as no surprise that only one in 10 individuals with substance misuse or addiction concerns actually receive necessary care, and only four of every nine adults with any type of mental health need receive care. 8