Integrated care for both mind and body under one roof? It may sound pie in the sky, but it's really happening at an award-winning healthcare center in Anchorage, recently featured in Politico. How does it work? And can it be replicated?
A shining example in Anchorage
"It's a truism that the mind and body are connected, but the U.S. health care system has long treated them as separate — with separate doctors, separate hospitals, separate payment systems," Politico reports (detailing the history of these health care "silos").
The Southcentral Foundation, which runs a healthcare center for native Alaskans in Anchorage, is in the spotlight for successfully bridging the mind/body divide.
"In part because of their Alaska Native heritage, which puts a high value on spiritual health, the leaders of Southcentral recognized decades ago that behavioral health is tightly linked with bodily health," Politico says. "So they became one of the early adopters of integrated care."
At Southcentral, checkups include a mental health evaluation, and a patient's primary care team includes on-site psychologists or social workers.
For one patient, Vera, profiled in the Politico piece, "accessing mental health treatment was as easy as going to her regular doctor, and there was no stigma attached: Her mental health services were provided at the same time and in the same place as other medical care, just like heading down the hall for an X-ray or a blood test." Vera was sexually abused as a child and later diagnosed with major depression. She experienced suicidal thoughts and may not be alive today without the integrated care she received at Southcentral, she says.
Advantages of integrated care
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended integrating mental health care into primary care for decades. Here are some of the benefits of integrated mental/physical health care that WHO outlined back in 2001:
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A shining example in Anchorage
"It's a truism that the mind and body are connected, but the U.S. health care system has long treated them as separate — with separate doctors, separate hospitals, separate payment systems," Politico reports (detailing the history of these health care "silos").
The Southcentral Foundation, which runs a healthcare center for native Alaskans in Anchorage, is in the spotlight for successfully bridging the mind/body divide.
"In part because of their Alaska Native heritage, which puts a high value on spiritual health, the leaders of Southcentral recognized decades ago that behavioral health is tightly linked with bodily health," Politico says. "So they became one of the early adopters of integrated care."
At Southcentral, checkups include a mental health evaluation, and a patient's primary care team includes on-site psychologists or social workers.
For one patient, Vera, profiled in the Politico piece, "accessing mental health treatment was as easy as going to her regular doctor, and there was no stigma attached: Her mental health services were provided at the same time and in the same place as other medical care, just like heading down the hall for an X-ray or a blood test." Vera was sexually abused as a child and later diagnosed with major depression. She experienced suicidal thoughts and may not be alive today without the integrated care she received at Southcentral, she says.
Advantages of integrated care
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended integrating mental health care into primary care for decades. Here are some of the benefits of integrated mental/physical health care that WHO outlined back in 2001:
- Less stigmatization of patients and staff, as mental and behavioral disorders are being seen and managed alongside physical health problems
- Improved screening and treatment, in particular improved detection rates for patients presenting with vague somatic (physical/bodily) complaints which are related to mental and behavioral disorders
- The potential for improved treatment of the physical problems of those suffering from mental illness, and vice versa
- Better treatment of mental aspects associated with “physical" problems
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