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Susan H. McDaniel, PhD

2016 APA President

Welcome from the 2016 APA President

Presidential Initiatives

Susan H. McDaniel, PhD In addition to making our commitment to core values apparent in all our work, I focused on the integration of psychologists and psychological science into comprehensive health care. I had three initiatives in this regard, all focused on identifying psychologists as leaders and taking on new roles in the new health care system in the U.S. First, I convened the leaders of the all the health professional associations involved in primary care to develop next steps to advance integrated primary care nationally. This meeting took place at APA headquarters on April 8-9, 2016, and showcased psychology, as well as deal with cutting-edge issues around: improving team functioning; increasing health equity; optimizing new payment models; interprofessional education; research and evaluation; and policies to sustain integrated primary care. This collaboration was beneficial in other legislative and regulatory matters beyond integrated care.

I appointed a working group to highlight the best of current practice in integrated specialty care, featuring the work of early career psychologists. Another working group was appointed to outline the benefits, the barriers and the possible curricula to interprofessional education in integrated care. Finally, a third working group reported on cutting-edge issues in team science, including the study of research, clinical and other work teams.

Biography

McDaniel is the Dr. Laurie Sands distinguished professor of families and health, director of the Institute for the Family in the department of psychiatry, associate chair of the department of family medicine, and director of the Patient- and Family-Centered Care Physician Coaching Program at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, where she has been since beginning her career in 1980. Her career has been dedicated to integrating mental/behavioral health into health care. McDaniel is the author of over 100 journal articles, most recently “Physicians criticizing physicians to patients” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (2013). With family physician, Frank deGruy, MD, she developed and co-edited the 2014 May-June special issue of the American Psychologist® on “Primary Care and Psychology.” She was co-editor of Families, Systems & Health for 12 years, and is an associate editor of the American Psychologist for six years. McDaniel is also the author of 15 books translated into eight languages. Her latest books include "Medical Family Therapy and Integrated Care, 2nd Edition," published in 2013, and "Psychosomatic Medicine" in 2014, co-authored with a German psychologist and German physician for the international market.

At APA, McDaniel has served as president of Div. 43 (Society of Family Psychology), chair of the Publications & Communication Board and member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Psychology. She is also a member of the New York State Psychological Association. McDaniel has received many awards, including the American Psychological Foundation/Cummings PSYCHE Prize in 2007, the Donald Bloch, MD, Award for Outstanding Contributions to Collaborative Care in 2009, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Recognition Award in 2011, the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for Mentoring in 2012, Distinguished Contributions to Health Psychology in 2013, Distinguished Leadership on behalf of Women in Psychology (from the Committee on Women in Psychology to the founding members of the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology) in 2013, the Distinguished Contribution to Family Psychology Award in 2015 and the Committee of Early Career Psychologists Award of Appreciation in 2015.

Presidential Citations

Each year, the APA President awards Presidential Citations to outstanding psychologists.

Integrated Primary Care Alliance

Background

The 2016 Integrated Primary Care Alliance Meeting was an opportunity for primary care organizations to come together, address critical issues, and develop a consensus statement and an implementation plan to move integrated primary care forward. 

Integrated Behavioral Health and PCMHs

In 1967, Pediatrics first described the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model for use with special needs children,1 then expanded this model to care for all children in 1992.2 In 2007, the primary care medical organizations for patients of all ages adopted and extended this approach in a consensus statement on the "Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home."3 The 2007 Joint Principles described care that is accessible, personal, coordinated, continuous and comprehensive. Behavioral health was not mentioned in this document.

In response, the Council of Associations of Family Medicine (six national family medicine organizations), along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Psychological Association and the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, produced a consensus statement in 2014, endorsing integrated behavioral health care as a core principle of the PCMH.4

There are seven "critical issues" that need to be addressed for successful integration of behavioral health into the advanced medical home. These critical issues include:

  1. Clear and consistent language.
  2. The role of the patient and family in articulating concerns and developing the care plan.
  3. Defining the roles and competencies of the various disciplines on the primary care team.
  4. Interdisciplinary training.
  5. Research on optimal provision of integrated care with attention to the patient, practice, training and finance.
  6. Recognition of different requirements and resources across different communities.
  7. Assuring payment for behavioral health services.

In addition, as part of the Accountable Care Act, many states (e.g, New York, Colorado, Delaware) are moving toward broad support for integrated primary care through reallocation of the states' Medicaid funds. While states and insurers are fiscally supportive of these efforts, at the same time there is little guidance regarding implementation. This is not surprising, since most professional organizations focus on advocating for their own profession separately, and tend not to advance their members contributions within a context of an integrated care system. It is very important that we draw upon the experience and evidence developed by a variety of practitioners across the health professions regarding elements that predict success of integrated primary care.5 We all know of many situations where different professionals are expected to collaborate or co-locate, without support or guidance, and the result is often somewhere between problematic and disastrous. We don't want to lose this opportunity to improve our citizens' comprehensive health care nor do we want taxpayer monies wasted.

Given these stated needs, the American Psychological Association hosted this inter-organizational leadership meeting on April 8-9, 2016, for primary care organizations to come together, define and address these and related critical issues, to provide guidance regarding implementation and to develop the next implementation plan/consensus statement to move integrated primary care forward.

References

1. Sia T, Tonniges TF, Osterhus E, Taba S. History of the advanced medical home concept. Pediatrics. 2004;113:1473-8.

2. American Academy of Pediatrics Ad Hoc Task Force on Definition of the Medical Home. The medical home. Pediatrics. 1992;90(5):774.

3. American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians & American Osteopathic Association. Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home. 2007.
https://www.acponline.org/running_practice/delivery_and_payment
_models/pcmhopens in new window/demonstrations/jointprinc_05_17.pdfopens in new window (PDF, 24KB)

4. The Working Party for Integrated Behavioral Healthcare and the American Academy of Family Practice, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association. Joint Principles: Integrating Behavioral Health into the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Annals of Family Medicine. 2014;12:2:183-185.

5. McDaniel SH & deGruy FV (Editors) American Psychologist Special Issue on Primary Care and Psychology. 2014:69 (4)
Resources

Meeting Summaries

Read the full Action Agenda
Several action steps were developed during the Integrated Primary Care Alliance Meeting related to the foundations of integrated primary care, clinical workforce development, clinical innovation, interprofessional education and training, new methods for research and evaluation, payment reform and sharing resources for integrated primary care.

Suggested Reading
The Alliance Integrated Primary Care Meeting featured presentations on integrated health care, health equality, professional education technologies, and improving primary care and mental health care for specific communities.

APA Office

APA policies related to integrated primary health care

APA endorsements of other documents

APA collaborations on integrated and interprofessional care (in addition to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative)

  • Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative
    Made up of doctoral level health professions that focus on compiling key research, defining terms and developing initiatives to meet the challenge of assessing and measuring competencies within professions.
  • Partnership for Health in Aging
    Coalition of organizations representing health care professions caring for older adults.
  • Eldercare Workforce Allianceopens in new window
    Made up of 31 national organizationsopens in new window , joined together to build a caring and competent eldercare workforce.

Other resources

Participating Organizations
  • American Academy of Family Physicians
  • American Academy of Nursing
  • American Academy of Pediatrics
  • American Association of Nurse Practitioners
  • American Academy of Physician Assistants
  • American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
  • American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • American College of Physicians
  • American College Health Association
  • American Geriatrics Society
  • American Nurses Association
  • American Osteopathic Association
  • American Psychiatric Association
  • American Psychological Association
  • American Psychosomatic Society
  • American Telemedicine Association
  • Collaborative Family Healthcare Association
  • Family Medicine for America’s Health
  • GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality
  • National Association of Social Workers
  • North American Primary Care Research Group
  • Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative
  • Society for Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics
  • Society for Behavioral Medicine
  • Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
Date created: 2017

Publications

Monitor on Psychology ®
New York Times