Consulting for Integrated Primary Care  

Alexander Blount, Ed.D. helping primary care practices add or improve behavioral health services.  Offering training for providers and staff, team building, productivity improvement, development of collaborative clinical practices and disease management programs.

Training and Consultation Services

Types of consultation offered:

 I consult to individual medical practices, health systems and medical and psychological training organizations.  I offer assessment of clinical, administrative and financial processes that can be supportive of, or are barriers to, integrating care.  In addition, I help with program design and implementation, with team building and with evaluation systems for new programs.  Finally, I offer a large array of training programs in behavioral health practices and collaboration in primary care.  Training, getting everyone on the same page, can often be an important part of a process designed to transform a practice, residency or health system.

 Assessment:

Identifying general patient needs and specific populations that could be impacted significantly by improving behavioral health services in medical settings.  Identifying potential “champions” and supporters of change.  Assessing clinical, administrative and financial processes that can support or are barriers to integrating care.  Assessing training needs of behavioral health staff, medical providers and staff and administrators.   

Program Design:

I work with administrators and clinical leaders to design and implement programs that improve behavioral health care for patients coming to medical settings.

Team Building

Identifying and prioritizing groups of patients in need of improved behavioral health services, highlighting current practices that need to be maintained and strengthened, identifying barriers to integrating care, using many perspectives to devise solutions, making a multi-step plan for moving forward, assigning work teams and designating the forum for reporting and supporting these teams.

Types of training programs offered:

Introduction to Integrated Primary Care

For:  Primary Care Medical and Behavioral Health Providers

Overview of behavioral health needs in primary care, ways to bringing behavioral health services into primary care and evidence concerning cost savings, patient outcome, patient satisfaction and provider satisfaction.

Primary Care Mental Health

For:  Mental Health Providers

This symposium introduces mental health practitioners to the burgeoning field of Primary Care Mental Health. While primary care physicians have always had to address the mental health issues of their patients, it is only in the last few years that the practice of including mental health practitioners as part of the primary care team has taken off.  The Health Resources and Service Administration has promulgated a model in which Primary Care Mental Health is a basic service in every Federally Qualified Community Health Center. 

Primary Care Mental Health practice takes some adjustment for many therapists.  Patients are less “sick”.  Many do not define their difficulties as mental health problems, even when they meet criteria for DSM diagnoses.  There are different practices about time and communication between staff.  There are many differences of “language and culture” between physicians and mental health practitioners.  

Training in Collaboration 

For:  Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers

Addressing subjects such as: When is collaboration necessary to address the patient’s illness?  Introduction and “hand off”,  Matching the definition of the treating team to the patients’ understanding of the cause of their illness, Scheduling for collaboration, What to say in front of the patient, Keeping the “team” going even when meeting separately with the patient. 

Working with Somatizing Patients

For:  Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers

Review of best practices for treating somatizing. Identifying a problem the patient will accept, Using language to describe the role of the behavioral health provider that the patient will accept, Using the ambiguity of the patient’s presentation to advance the therapy, Reviewing a successful case

Five Minutes to Change: Training in Brief Interventions for Primary Care

For:  Behavioral Health and Medical Providers  

Brief therapy for primary care uses elements from solution-focused therapy; cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation response therapies, motivational interviewing and family therapy designed to fit into a primary care practice.  These interventions can be targeted to address specific behavioral issues in the flow of primary care.

Training in Behavioral Medicine for Primary Care

For: Behavioral Health Providers, Patient Educators and interested Primary Care Providers

This is an initial training in health behavioral change techniques and relaxation response therapies that can be useful for both behavioral health and medical practitioners.

A Family Approach to Child Behavioral Health Problems in Primary Care

For:  Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers

This is a time-limited model using the types of visits that are commonly part of pediatric care.  Training will focus on interviewing parents, family interviewing, interviewing children, and negotiating behavioral plans.  Video taped examples and role-play practice are central to the experience.  

Contact Information:

Alexander Blount, Ed.D.

Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Director of Behavioral Science

Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

55 Lake Ave. North

Worcester, MA 01655

O. 508 856-2147

email:  blounta(at sign)ummhc.org

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