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TFAH • WBT • PaininTheNation.org
Improving Behavioral Health Services
1. Better training and care integration and coordination
Health systems are educating their
clinicians about both substance misuse
and suicide prevention. Unfortunately,
many healthcare providers have never
been trained in suicide prevention
and lack the confidence to effectively
deal with a suicidal patient.
54
The
National Action Alliance for Suicide
Prevention has proposed suicide
training guidelines for clinicians
and suggested they be required by
state licensing entities, educational
institutions and accreditation
programs.
55
Healthcare systems can
use these recommendations to develop
their own training requirements or
programs for their providers.
In addition, while behavioral health
services have long operated in their own
silo and have not traditionally been part
of the medical care systems, systems and
providers are increasingly employing
strategies to shift towards a "whole
health" mentality to ensure coordinated
medical and behavioral healthcare
services and systems, including:
l
Co-locating and integrating physical
and behavioral healthcare services;
l
Assigning patients case managers to help
them navigate the healthcare system;
l
Implementing Accountable
Communities for Health (ACH) models,
a cross-sector approach to improving
health and health equity by enhancing
the clinical-community link;
56, 57
and
l
Supporting a "no wrong door" approach,
which allows patients to quickly access
an entire range of healthcare and social
service benefits regardless of where they
enter a health system. This philosophy
requires coordination among multiple
sectors, so that healthcare providers
can refer patients to other entities for
services needed to improve their health
and well-being, such as for housing or
nutritional assistance.
58, 59, 60, 61, 62
