Annals of family medicine
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Annals of family medicine · Feb 2023
Patient and Health Care Professional Perspectives on Stigma in Integrated Behavioral Health: Barriers and Recommendations.
Stigma related to mental health is well documented and a major barrier to using mental and physical health care. Integrated behavioral health (IBH) in primary care, in which behavioral/mental health care services are located within a primary care setting, may reduce the experience of stigma. The purpose of this study was to assess the opinions of patients and health care professionals about mental illness stigma as a barrier to engagement with IBH and to gain insight into strategies to reduce stigma, encourage discussion of mental health, and increase uptake of IBH care. ⋯ Health care professionals can help reduce perceptions of stigma by having conversations with patients that normalize mental health discussion, use patient-centered communication, promote professional self-disclosure, and are tailored to patients' preferred understanding.
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Annals of family medicine · Feb 2023
Impact of Stigma on Clinician Training for Opioid Use Disorder Care: A Qualitative Study in a Primary Care Learning Collaborative.
We undertook a study to examine how stigma influences the uptake of training on medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in primary care academic programs. ⋯ OUD-related stigma was commonly reported in training programs and impeded the uptake of MOUD training. Potential strategies to address stigma in the training context, beyond providing content on effective evidence-based treatments, include addressing the concerns of primary care clinicians and incorporating the chronic care framework into OUD treatment.
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Oral health dramatically affects overall health and vice versa. Oral health is a key health indicator for Healthy People 2030. Yet family physicians are not addressing this important health issue at the same level they address other essential health problems. ⋯ Robust oral health curricula for family doctors exist and efforts are being made to create primary care oral health education champions. The tide is turning on accountable care organizations adding oral health services, access, and outcomes to their systems. Like behavioral health, oral health can be fully integrated into the care family physicians offer.
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Annals of family medicine · Feb 2023
Let's Not Reinvent the Wheel: Using Communities of Learning and Practice to Address SDOH and Advance Health Equity.
Despite advances in knowledge and science, evidence indicates that health care disparities and inequities continue to exist across diverse populations. Educating and training the next generation of health professionals to focus on addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) and advancing health equity is a key priority. This aim requires educational institutions, communities, and educators to strive for change in health professions education, to attain the goal of creating transformative educational systems that better meet the public health needs of the 21st Century. ⋯ Our work is an example that shows we can build partnerships across communities and professions, thereby freely sharing ideas and curricular innovations that address the systemic inequities that continue to fuel persistent health disparities and inequities, and contribute to moral distress and burnout of our health professionals.