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Posted By Tai Mendenhall, Ph.D., LMFT, CFT,
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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It
was early in my graduate training that I began to understand how my own
discipline (medical family therapy) really
fit within a larger mosaic of care providers. I began to find the collaborative
processes of interdisciplinary work to be simultaneously engaging and
energizing, often messy and humbling, and almost always more effective than
anything that I or my colleagues could have offered by ourselves. As this collaborative evolution in my
thinking and practice continued to grow, I (along with colleagues) came to
recognize that the greatest untapped resource for improving
health care is the knowledge, wisdom, and energy of individuals, families, and
communities who face challenging health issues in their everyday lives. "Collaboration,” then, must engage
providers with the communities in which they are positioned – with everyone
working together toward a common goal. CFHA believes in this. As an organization, it values everyone’s
voice – whether it’s a physician, mental health provider, or a patient or
family who maintains wisdom not accessible through textbooks. It is my professional home, and I am honored
to be a part of it.
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Posted By Bill Steger,
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
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What drives our volunteer board? Why do most members join?
Why has CFHA grown to be a relevant factor in improving the delivery of care? I suggest a PASSION for integrating physical and mental health in the caring for patients to provide better outcomes more efficiently.
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Posted By Natalie Levkovich and Suzanne Daub,
Thursday, March 29, 2012
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Each
of us joined CFHA for different reasons but we have both enjoyed
similar rewards. CFHA has given us the gift of like-minded colleagues,
creative inspiration, a collective and synergistic voice, and an
opportunity to learn and to share our knowledge. CFHA attracts an
energized group of professionals who are accessible, generous and eager
to engage. It offers a professional home to a diverse group of people –
medical and behavioral providers, educators, researchers, policy wonks,
administrators and advocates – who share a common vision that effective
clinical care and population health can only be fully realized if
professionals with complementary skills and expertise collaborate with
each other and with their patient, families and communities in the
delivery of preventive and therapeutic interventions that take into
account the full spectrum of biopsychosocial factors that affect
people’s access to good health. What an exquisitely sensible and groovy idea!
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Posted By Margaret Cotroneo, Patricia Gerrity,Gail Stern, Roberta Waite, and Cynthia Wilson,
Thursday, March 22, 2012
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Advocacy is any activity that supports a change from "what is" to "what should be", especially when the effort is made to help or support people who are vulnerable to suffering from physical, behavioral and social stressors. Therefore, nurses support the efforts to improve patient centered care by advocating for the integration of services that care for the whole person and family.
Effective medical/behavioral health outcomes can only be addressed by the consistent presence and coordination of a behavioral health provider wherever health care is provided. We applaud the work of CFHA as we advocate for the changes needed to truly realize Patient Centered Care.
"Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better".
--Florence Nightingale
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Posted By Ajantha Jayabarathan MD,
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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V-Formation
evokes a vision of Canada Geese flying in arrowhead shaped flocks as they
journey to and from the United States and Canada. These annual migrations take
place as an adaptation to the changing seasons and enhance their health and
likelihood of survival.
Having
practiced family medicine during the last twenty years, I can attest to the
strong and positive influence that "Shared mental health care” in Canada had
on my medical practice. In 2010, I discovered the CFHA and within its ideology
and membership found my "flock”. Working with like- minded individuals who
understand human suffering and are motivated to work together and share their
skills, experience and talent has renewed my hope and optimism for the future.
Working together, helping each other, inspiring one another and taking turns as
leaders as we fly towards better health and care for all, is the essence of
working collaboratively.
Honk, Honk!
See also from AJ: V-Forming Healthcare through Collaboration
CFHA: Value-Added for Canadians
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Posted By Polly Kurtz, MBA,
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
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In my first few months of exposure to CFHA, I’ve spent a great
deal of time learning about the organization.
Before applying to be CFHA’s Executive Director, I engaged in the
predictable process of looking through the website, learning about the mission,
history, board and committees.
Soon
after being selected, I spent time with staff, a few members and the board, listening
to their experiences and ideas as I learned about their vision for the
organization, for themselves, and for the future of healthcare. Even my late night reading is occasionally spent
perusing past issues of FSH in an attempt to learn more about collaborative
care.
Although far from over, I believe my recent
learning as helped me synthesize the beginnings of one potential
conclusion: CFHA is a "Learning
Organization”. As defined by Peter
Senge, learning organizations are
"…organizations where people continually
expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set
free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.”
This single sentence captures the heart of
CFHA.
But then again, I’m still learning. And delighted to be a part of an
organization that seems to be doing the same thing.
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Posted By Alison Wong and Alyssa Banford,
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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Service is an integral part of collaboration. Through service we expand our human connections, enrich our relationships, develop and share our skills, lift others, and learn about ourselves.
Another reason we chose the word service is because it is at the heart of helping professions and drives our interest in combining the strengths of various disciplines to aid others in maintaining physical and mental health. We are dedicated as trainees to find outlets for service, and it is our goal as professionals to never stop serving.
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Posted By Gonzalo Bacigalupe, EdD,
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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Will collaborative care make a difference in reducing
and eliminating healthcare disparities?
Like my colleagues, I truly believe in the need for transparent,
vertical, and horizontal collaboration. Addressing social determinants of
health, however, continues to be a challenge for all of us and I hope my
contribution as a researcher and academician makes a difference in that
direction. To address this challenge we need to move forward together.
Joining other organizations that also focus on participation,
systemic thinking, and a focus on patients beyond archaic guild divisions, is
also a central dimension in our connecting role as clinicians, researchers, and
policy makers. One powerful tool is the effective use of Web 2.0 to deepen the
participation of patients, their families, and the communities as a whole, therefore,
TOGETHER.
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Posted By Sam Monson, PhD,
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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Although I entered the field of collaborative care solely as a
behavioral health provider in a primary care clinic, the Collaborative
Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) has helped expand my horizons. It
has facilitated networking with other like-minded colleagues, both
locally and nationally. It has engaged me in exploring relevant policy
change. It has enlightened me about the business aspect of the clinical
work I do everyday.
In addition to all of these valuable growth
experiences CFHA has afforded me, it has also provided a mission-driven
community that I have come to call my professional home. I feel
reassured that CFHA is championing healthcare changes in which I
strongly believe.
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Posted By Pete Fifield,
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
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 The
Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) has connected me
with other professionals, colleagues and now friends who have a common
interest in integrated care. As a member of the CFHA, I am in contact
with other providers working in the burgeoning field of integrated
behavioral health; a very rich, diverse collection of professionals all
passionate about improving health service delivery.
Through my
membership I continue to foster relationships with other's out there,
who are not only thinking, researching and writing about, but are also
acting to perpetuate the practice of collaborative healthcare. CFHA
is made up of Doctors of medicine, philosophy and education, nurses,
dentists, nutritionists and the like all transcending the limitations of
their individual guilds and discipline boundaries joining together to
practice the core tenets of collaboration; working together for a common
cause.
From the beginning of my career in Behavioral Health Science I
have believed that patients don’t make excuses, they make choices and
the decisions patients make regarding their personal health maintenance
are often difficult due to their very complex lives. In the healthcare
setting, this is where integration and collaboration prove their worth
and I believe the CFHA lays at the heart of it all.
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