Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2019
A Model to Improve Behavioral Health Integration Into Serious Illness Care.
Behavioral health problems are highly prevalent among people with serious medical illness. Individuals living with these comorbidities have complex clinical and social needs yet face siloed care, high health care costs, and poor outcomes. Interacting factors contribute to these inequalities including historical separation of behavioral and physical health provision. ⋯ Developed through a mixed methods approach combining literature review, surveys, interviews, and input from an expert advisory panel, it provides a conceptual framework of building blocks for behavioral health integration tailored to serious illness care populations and the range of settings in which they receive care. The model is intended to serve as foundation to support the development and implementation of integrated behavioral health and serious illness care. The key components of the model are described, barriers to implementation discussed, and recommendations for policy approaches to address these barriers presented.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2019
When Patients Say They Know About Palliative Care, How Much Do They Really Understand?
Lack of knowledge or misconceptions about palliative care (PC) can serve as barriers to accessing PC for seriously ill patients. Although self-reported rates of PC knowledge have been increasing, little is known about how self-reports relate to actual PC knowledge. ⋯ We found that self-reported PC knowledge may not reflect actual PC knowledge. Physicians should carefully explain PC when introducing it to patients. In addition, this PC information should be provided at a low literacy level to ensure widespread understanding of the service.