"Health" is a word that encompasses both physical and psychological well-being; it's not easy to achieve one without the other.
Recognizing this, the health care industry is making changes in its traditional treatment models to accommodate a biopsychosocial model of health, wherein health assessment and treatment are focused on not only the medical, genetic, and physiological aspects of a patient's physical illness but also the patient's emotional status, social support, and coping mechanisms.
However, logistical and financial barriers often hinder or even prevent such integration. Some health care providers have already made the transition to an integrated program, and learning about their experiences could aid others making similar changes.
To that end, in an article published in the March 2014 issue of Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology (PDF, 117KB)opens in new window, Moser, Plante, LeLeiko, and Lobato described an integrated health care program that is currently operating in a gastroenterology division of an urban hospital in the northeastern United States: To help resolve gastrointestinal-related problems, pediatric psychologists are tasked with identifying psychological factors influencing the medical status of patients and administering brief, problem-focused therapy with evidence-based practices.
Moser et al, to better understand the patients and utilization patterns of this psychology service, conducted a retrospective review of preexisting billing data to determine the demographic and medical characteristics of the patients using the service, the number of sessions of treatment patients received and how this number varied by problem, whether all gastrointestinal physicians referred patients to the psychology services and whether they did so at the same rate, and the consistency of the referrals to psychology services over time.
The results revealed, in addition to the specific answers to these questions, that the staff of this department was willing and able to make the crucial commitment to a biopsychosocial model of health that included the use of psychological services and, further, that logistical and financial issues can be successfully resolved.
Moser et al's study of this program demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of integrated health care programs for consumers and shows the potential for future health care cost savings, which will be essential if hospital administrators and third-party payers are to advocate for such care models in the future.
Citation:
Moser, N. L., Plante, W. A., LeLeiko, N. S., & Lobato, D. J. (2014). Integrating behavioral health services into pediatric gastroenterology: A model of an integrated health care program. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 2, 1–12.
Note: This article is in the Clinical Psychology topic area. View more articles in the Clinical Psychology topic area.