The integrated care movement has greatly increased the accessibility and availability of mental health services over the last 30 years, across various models (e.g., MFT, PCBH, COCM). As integrated care providers, we must be nimble, compassionate, effective, and efficient to make the best clinical decisions in the moment, to address primary care demand, intersectionality, patient readiness, and serve the quintuple aim: this training addresses those vital skills for beginner and intermediate clinicians. This presentation will provide a combination of education on highly useful clinical techniques (“practice hacks”) and “in the moment” practice case scenarios to maximize effectiveness in primary care’s limited time, patient engagement and buy-in, and compassion. Selected examples of patient-centered and GATHER-oriented techniques include: (1) Considerate questions: how to efficiently elicit disclosure on the core of what is impacting your patient (2) Listening for “change talk”: what are your patient’s specific word choices revealing to you about their readiness to change (3) The “Advise” step: how to turn an uncomfortable part of the visit into gentle guidance and empowered patient-centered education (4) “Playing Reverse Jenga” in patient visits, where you build the tower up securely, to effectively focus on positive functional outcomes for presentations with complexity and comorbidity
Travis Cos, Behavioral Health Consultant, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Travis Cos PhD