Developing Cross-Disciplinary Mental Health Teams in Integrated Care Settings C athy M. Hudgins, PhD, LPC, LMFT Director, NC Center of Excellence for Integrated Care Jennifer Hodgson, PhD, LMFT Professor, East Carolina University, Departments of Child Development & Family Relations and Family Medicine Collaborative Family Healthcare Association 15 th Annual Conference October 10-12, 2013 Broomfield, Colorado U.S.A. Session #H1b Friday, October 11, 2013

Faculty Disclosure I/We have not had any relevant financial relationships during the past 12 months.

Objectives Identify the key policy and professional issues that have influenced staffing, training, and practice issues as a way to frame the current climate in healthcare reform. Define how their own professional identities, ethics, and training will need to be repositioned and rearticulated in order to include recognized, reimbursable members of Integrated Care teams. Describe how unifying the different mental health disciplines and capitalizing on the competencies each profession brings to the team will increase the capacity to treat patients, especially in areas where there are a shortage of providers. Apply core competencies that should be recognized by systems who are concerned about making efficient staffing decisions.

Learning Assessment Audience Question & Answer will follow this presentation

Historical Context Regarding Professional Identity and Roles Evolving behavioral health disciplines Skills as defined by training and setting Roles as defined and driven by setting accreditation, reimbursement, and positioning Some recognition for reimbursement differs by state (e.g., masters level psychologists) and some are federally dictated (e.g., Medicare does not recognize LMFTs and LPCs as eligible providers)

Healthcare Reform More need for behavioral health treatment in many states due to the increase in insured More efficient models of care (triple aim) will increase the need for streamlined, team- based approaches – increasing patient satisfaction/outcomes and reducing cost Alternative payment models will be initiated – focused on outcomes (the time is now for Integrated Care professionals to determine a new identity that is recognized based on competencies and not professional identity)

Your Current Status Quo? What guidelines and issues are driving staffing and professional issues in your state/region/setting?

Cross Discipline Commonalities Integrated Care Core Competencies Family Therapists Social Workers Psychologists Professional Counselors What disciplines are missing?

Optimization of Services Unifying the behavioral health disciplines can result in… – Maximizing the energy toward integration – Reject traditions perpetuating fragmentation – Redefine competency beyond license only – No evidence that expanding workforce will result in more expense – Help graduates of each discipline to learn models of collaboration among behavioral health disciplines

Defining Core Competencies As each discipline works to define core competencies to support workforce development, someone needs to work on what are the overall core competencies across disciplines.

5 Minute Brainstorming…. What are the core competencies that you believe should span all behavioral health disciplines? What competencies should remain discipline specific (if any).

How can you work to challenge status quo in your context? Alter job descriptions to be able to hire someone of a different discipline. Investigate new business models. Purposefully develop collaborative projects, presentations, grants etc. that include several different behavioral health discipline members. Talk about beliefs and training and provide opportunity for myth busting to take place. Think and Be inclusive!

Questions and Discussion Further Action? What will you take back to your Integrated Care system or state that will change the status quo?

Contact Information Cathy Hudgins, PhD Director NC Center of Excellence for Integrated Care 2401 Weston Parkway, Cary, NC org Jennifer Hodgson, PhD Professor East Carolina University Dept of CDFR 114 Redditt House

Session Evaluation Please complete and return the evaluation form to the classroom monitor before leaving this session. Thank you!