2nd Annual Quality Conference (2011)

Council Co-chair Karen Rosene-Montella, MD opened this year’s Conference by describing the common themes that have come to define the Women’s Health Council of RI. Specifically, collaboration among members of many disciplines, practical application of new ideas, and the present push to bridge physical and behavioral health.

Information on this website showcases the Council’s areas of focus to date:  Women’s Health in terms of obesity and exercise, Intimate Partner Violence, Smoking Cessation, Pregnancy as a health stress test, and a new focus on Bridging Physical and Behavioral Health in the area where women are at high risk: depression and suicide.

“In all these areas,” Dr. Rosene said “We need to continually address new program, policy and payment models.”

Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, MBA, greeted attendees by saying “Women’s health is a big determinant of family health.” She noted that people at this conference are changing the healthcare landscape. And policy makers are increasingly aware that they now have the opportunity to redefine health reform to get the healthier outcomes we all want.

Linda Carpenter, MD spoke in detail about the interface between depression and physical illness. 1 in 10 Americans have or had or will have Major Depressive Disorder. Patients typically focus on physical health with their primary care provider and don’t mention emotional or mental health. In 69% of patients, only physical symptoms were reported but all went on to meet criteria for depression. In describing how to recognize depression, the physician starts with 2 simple questions to determine if there has been a change in sense of well-being and a change in functioning. Dr. Carpenter’s slides showed the longer list of symptoms, including loss of hedonic drive and hopelessness leading to suicide. While there are multiple factors contributing to depression, early childhood stress including mother’s stress while infant is in utero, puts the patient at greater risk and makes recovery more difficult.

Teri Pearlstein, MD reviewed current treatment protocols for depression and suicide prevention. She stressed that primary care providers who screen for depression need to know where to refer patients for further evaluation and treatment. Screening is most beneficial when staff-assisted care and follow-up systems are in place. Evidence-based treatments for depression include psychotherapy, medication and alternative treatments, Efforts are ongoing to establish integrated care, ideally coordinated by care managers at regular PCP visits. The easy accessibility and follow-up of care is necessary because depressed patients face many barriers to receiving treatment. There is a 50% chance of another episode after first remission and anti-depressants work only 50-60% the first time.

Dr. Pearlstein also described the progressive phases of suicide, which begin with the idea, then thoughts, followed by plans. Successive suicide plans and attempts grow in intention and lethality until patient is successful or there is an intervention. She noted that suicidality may be a risk with anyone first starting anti-depressants and should be monitored.

Beatriz Perez, MPH, discussed suicide as a public health issue. In her role with the RI Department of Health, she described statewide violence and injury prevention programs she administers for the CDC and SAMSHA. She noted that RI women are below the national average for suicides, but suicide in men is showing a steeper increase than the national rate. Ms. Perez rarely sees an individual with just one risk factor and cautioned that any screening should consider multiple factors. Her programs make an effort to get to children at risk before depression sets in. And she teaches parents in at risk neighborhoods how to suicide-proof their homes by removing weapons and making medications unavailable.

Michaei Fine, MD, Director of the RI Department of Health,introduced the keynote speaker Regina Benjamin.

US Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA began her talk by observing that community events such as our council are important: they allow one person to stand up and make a difference whether in practice or policy.

Dr. Benjamin’s purpose as America’s Doctor is to stop illness and disease before it starts by using an integrative and holistic approach. She learned early in her career that practicing medicine was not about medicine alone, so she became involved in every organization that might help her patients receive better health services.

Today as Surgeon General her focus is on prevention and eradicating preventable causes of illness and disease.

In addition to the new American Affordable Healthcare Act, her policy agenda includes

  • Let’s Move – supporting First Lady Michelle Obama’s exercise programs, especially for children and people over 50
  • Addressing poverty, which has greatest negative impact on health
  • Promoting Surgeon General’s Call to Action for Breastfeeding
  • Improving ratio of full-term births
  • Improving access to health care
  • Reducing smoking rates
  • Slowing sudden growth of HIV and AIDS in young women
  • Stopping intimate partner violence, especially with young people
  • Stopping prescription drug abuse by young people
  • Improving patient compliance with prescribed medications
  • Supporting the UN program to reduce Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Supporting the Girls Not Brides program to keep girls around the world from being sold as brides.

Dr. Benjamin’s solutions focus on providing the best information available to live a healthy life. She has created the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, and released a National Prevention Strategy(www.healthcare.gov/prevention/nphpphc/strategy/report.pdf).

Her approach combines state of art medicine with an integrative and holistic approach for:

  1. Healthy and safe communities and environments (homes)
  2. Clinical and community-wide preventive services for better outcomes
  3. Empowering people with tools and information making healthy choices easy and affordable.
  4. Elimination of health disparities

This approach she believes can reduce the five leading causes of illness and death.

“We need your help,” Dr. Benjamin said as she introduced a new campaign to help change how everyone looks at health. In her program, health is translated as joyful, active living and includes activities that bring joy.

Kicking off on December 2, 2011 is a radio campaign called the “Surgeon General’s Dance Break,” a 60-second music broadcast urging people to stop what they’re doing, stand up and dance for 60 seconds every day.

Her closing words of advice: “Take care of yourself first. Relax, enjoy, and dance!”

PANEL DISCUSSION

Moderated by Rebekah Gardner MD and facilitated by Lisa Shea, PhD

This wide-ranging discussion touched on the following topics:

  • Build behavioral health treatment into primary care training.
  • RI is moving to achieve universal health coverage by 2014.
  • Integrated programs are going to work the best for keeping people out of hospitals and living more joyful lives
  • Support advocacy groups to reduce mental health stigmas
  • Intervene and help families at risk early on
  • Patient-centered home initiatives
  • Build depression screening into regular practice. This is a culture change for providers. Create engaging ways for patients to fill out screening instrument.
  • PCP’s must follow up with patients because there is much more to treating depression than giving medication.
  • AMA is looking at ways to reduce burden of paperwork and record keeping for PCP’s.
  • Incorporate dentists; note correlation between dental problems and heart disease.
  • Both telemedicine and social media represent enormous opportunities to improve care: younger generations plug in to health issues online.
  • Include nurses, especially because they are skilled at getting out into the community.

CLOSURE Mary Reich Cooper, MD, JD

Dr. Cooper described RI as a “magical state,” because of people’s willingness to collaborate across disciplines on new solutions to improve women’s healthcare. “But,” as she thanked the participants, “we still have a lot of work to do!”

FOLLOW-UP The next Critical Workshop Training, Practical Applications: Bridging Physical and Behavioral Health, is scheduled for March 6, 2012. Presenters will offer more in-depth training for providers in how to implement the “chain of care” so patients receive more integrated and holistic treatment.

US Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA

Regina Benjamin wants to change the way we think about health in this country.

As the US Surgeon General, Dr. Benjamin is on a mission to improve preventive care and reduce the five leading causes of preventable death. Part of her efforts include a new campaign to redefine health as a “Journey to Joy.”

When she spoke at our Second Annual Quality Conference on November 10, 2011, Dr. Benjamin gave an overview of her perspectives on the current challenges in healthcare. In order to change our thinking, she said, we need to take a much more integrative and holistic approach. She invited us to help with the implementation of her new campaign by encouraging patients to find their own levels of fun and healthy activities, foods and friendships…and to bring more joy into their lives as well as our own.

 

Agenda from the 2nd Annual Quality Conference (2011)

This year’s Conference explores common themes that have come to define the Women’s Health Council of RI:  Collaboration among members of many disciplines, practical application of new ideas, and the present push to bridge physical and behavioral health. The event showcased the Council’s areas of focus to date:  Women’s Health in terms of obesity and exercise, Intimate Partner Violence, Smoking Cessation, Pregnancy as a health stress test, and a new focus on Bridging Physical and Behavioral Health in the area where women are at high risk: depression and suicide.

AGENDA

5:00 – 6:00 PM Buffet Dinner and Networking

6:00 – 6:30 PM Welcome and Introductions
Karen Rosene-Montella, MD

6:30 – 7:30 PM The Intersection of Physical and Behavioral Health
Linda Carpenter, MD
Teri Pearlstein, MD
Beatriz Perez, MPH

7:30 – 7:50 PM Keynote Address “National Prevention Strategies”
Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, U.S. Surgeon General

7:50 – 8:30 PM Panel Discussion
Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA
Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts
Teri Pearlstein, MD
Linda Carpenter, MD
Beatriz Perez, MPH
Linda Nagy, MSN, RN, PMHCNS-BC, NEA-BC
Lisa Shea, MD, Facilitator

8:30 – 8:50 PM Q&A Session with Audience
Rebekah Gardner, MD, Facilitator

8:50 – 9:00 PM Closing Remarks
Mary Reich Cooper, MD, JD

 

 

Presenters from the 2nd Annual Quality Conference (2011)

RBenjaminRegina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA is the 18th Surgeon General of the United States. As America’s Doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. Dr. Benjamin also oversees the operational command of 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote, and protect the health of the American People.

Dr. Benjamin is Founder and Former CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile, and Past Chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States.
Dr. Benjamin is a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader.

Dr. Benjamin has a BS in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans; attended Morehouse School of Medicine, and received her MD degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; She also has an MBA from Tulane University and fifteen honorary doctorates.

 

LCarpenterLinda Carpenter, MD, is Chief of the Affective Disorders Program at Butler Hospital in Providence, RI, and is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University

 

 

 

MCooperMary Reich Cooper, MD, JD, is a Senior Vice President and the Chief Quality Officer of Lifespan, and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is Co-chair of the Women’s Health Council of RI.

 

 

RGardnerRebekah Gardner, MD, is Senior Medical Scientist atHealthcentric Advisors and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is also an Attending Physician at Rhode Island Hospital.

 

 

LNagyLinda Nagy, MSN, RN, PMHCNS-BC, NEA-BC, is the new Chief Nursing Officer at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, RI. Previously she served for four years as Director of Behavioral Health for Salem Health, Salem OR.

 

 

Teri Pearlstein, MD is Director of Women’s Behavioral Medicine at the Women’s Health Collaborative in Providence. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University.

 

BPerezBeatriz Perez, MPH, is the Manager of Safe Rhode Island, a program operated by the RI Department of Health. She currently administers federal grants from CDC and SAMHSA for statewide violence and injury prevention programs.

 

 

 

ERobertsLt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts, MBA is chair of the Rhode Island Healthcare Reform Commission created by Governor Chafee in 2010. She also serves as chair of Rhode Island’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the Small Business Advocacy Council, and the Emergency Management Advisory Council.

 

 

KRosene-MontellaKaren Rosene-Montella, MD, is a Senior Vice President for Women’s Services and Clinical Integration for Lifespan. Dr. Rosene-Montella is the Division Chief of Obstetric Medicine and Professor of Medicine OB/GYN at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is Co-chair of the Women’s Health Council of RI.

 

LSheaLisa Shea, MD, Facilitator, is the Associate Medical Director, Quality & Regulation at Butler Hospital in Providence RI. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Report Cards from the 2nd Annual Quality Conference (2011)

2011 Women’s Behavioral Health Report Card: Reports RI’s incidences of mental illness are 25% – 33% higher than the national average. Opportunities include more research into contributing factors as well as links between behavior and illness.

2011 Women’s Physical Health Report Card: Indicates that women need a social and physical environment that supports healthy eating and active living, combined with increased access to timely, comprehensive, quality health services.