In the current redesign of healthcare, there is precious little time for meetings to discuss what should be done next. The convening of various healthcare stakeholders to Baltimore, Maryland for the URAC/HAYES Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity Stakeholders Conference was a unique opportunity for dialogue to occur around the future of mental health. This meeting was timely and precise in its attempt to examine the impact of mental health parity on current healthcare legislation, clinical practice, and payment strategies. There were three main points that emerged from the meeting that I will briefly address.

As the CFHA Conference in Louisville fast approaches, the collaborators of the world are abuzz with creative energy.  What better way to channel that enthusiasm than by writing a short Japanese poem?  You loved haiku in 4th grade, now that you've finished grad school, you are a Haiku MASTER.

Medical Family Therapy (MedFT) is inspired by many people from several different professions. It has made a nest under the umbrella of Family Therapy by nature of its attention to the family unit, systems thinking, and relational foci. However, when it comes to practicing MedFT, numerous professions embrace and apply its concepts. My intent in this piece is to briefly introduce two core concepts (of many) that form MedFT’s foundation and articulate how they represent an asset(s) to healthcare.

Good Question.  A few weeks back my almost three year old son and I were looking at a poster of the 8 planets. After reviewing the names together it was his turn to try solo.  He began with the sun then to the subsequent planets--pointing to each one he said "Mercury, Venus, Earf, Mars, Jupatewr, Saturn, Myanus, and Neptewn”.  I offered him encouragement for his job well done and of course just one correction…”Isn’t it Uranus” I asked him with a slight grin. “No it’s mine Papa!” he insisted.  At that point I could not help but appreciate what ownership he had of his body.  Later, I asked my wife “At what point do we lose that ownership”?  

Thank you for participating in CFHA's Collaborative Care Final Four, where our members will answer the question: "WHAT STATE OR REGION HAS CONTRIBUTED THE MOST TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE CARE AND CFHA?

Thank you for participating in CFHA's Collaborative Care Final Four, where our members will answer the question: "WHAT STATE OR REGION HAS CONTRIBUTED THE MOST TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE CARE AND CFHA?"

One of CFHA Blog's regular contributors, Gonzalo Bacigalupe, is Chilean.  Through his twitter feed (@bacigalupe and @healthglobal) he has been leading the charge to connect ex-patriate Chileans with information about the status of Chile after the recent earthquake and about how to contact loved ones.

Julia, an active board member of a health care professional organization, noticed my recent twitter activity, such as:

The National Day of Listening happens every year, the day after Thanksgiving.  I know it was a while back but due to both a past cfha.net blog and a recent patient encounter I began thinking about this concept again.  This year during National Day of Listening, I chose to interview my father.  He has lived a fulfilling life in his 78 years.  When we sat down to kick the “interview” off he, with sincere curiosity, asked “You are not doing this because you think I’m going to die are you”?  After I debunked this myth of his, we proceeded.  With a digital recorder on the table, we sat and talked over coffee for about two hours.  My entire life, I have had a great communicative relationship with my father but something was different this time.  This time my sole intent was just to listen, nothing else. I had no intentions, no predispositions, no expectations, just open ears. I learned a lot about my father that day that I had never known before.

Have you ever watched Bobby Flay on the Food Network channel beat other chefs and cooks at their own specialty dishes? He always looks shocked when he wins but on the way to the challenge he is confident in his product. This is the exact same way that I see collaborative care models as they face off to an existing method of care. However, like Bobby, there are critical things one needs to appreciate about the context one is entering before proposing changes to it. For example: