ECU’s medical family therapy receives first family oriented care award
Behavioral health support and collaboration between health care services were among the top concerns of local citizens according to a 2015 Pitt County Needs Assessment report. East Carolina University’s medical family therapy program is addressing this need with an integrated approach and its work has garnered national recognition.
ECU medical family therapy doctoral student Mary Moran meets with Drs. Jake Jensen, Jennifer Hodgson, director and Glenda Mutinda, fellow student. (Photos by Gretchen Baugh)
ECU’s medical family therapy program received the first-ever Family Oriented Care Award on Oct. 14 from the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, a nationally recognized association for advancing the integration of behavioral health in medical settings.
The award recognizes ECU’s program, which trains graduates, behavioral health workforce providers and researchers to better meet the needs of communities like Pitt County through implementation of integrated behavioral health care models. Integrated behavioral health providers work side-by-side with medical health care teams to assess, diagnose and treat patients and their families using evidence-based approaches to behavioral health. Integrated family-oriented care focuses on a patient’s mind and body, while respecting that the patient interacts with a family/support system before and after each medical visit.
Faculty-initiated research grants provide behavioral health support and health coaching to five rural southeastern Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers. These centers include Bernstein Medical Center, Snow Hill Medical Center, Kate B. Reynolds Medical Center, Walstonburg Medical Center, and Pamlico Community Health Center.
“Our students provide family centered care to an underserved population where they have the opportunity to receive health coaching and medical family therapy interventions while seeing their primary care provider,” said Dr. Jennifer Hodgson, professor and director of the program. “This is not only convenient for patients but communicates a new model of health that respects how closely the mind and body work together.”
ECU students Jessica Goodman, Eunicia Jones and David Haralson discuss integrated behavioral health care and medical family therapy at the Redditt House.
During the past 10 years, the medical family therapy program has collaborated with Greene County Health Care, who funds more than 20 of the program’s student internships.
“The students are able to serve a great number of patients in all of our medical centers,” said Doug Smith, president and CEO of Greene County Health Care.
“We serve over 40,000 patients a year and are firm believers in an integrated care approach. It makes an incredible difference in patients’ lives to be able to get the medical, dental and behavioral health care that they need at one place and have it affordable,” he said.
The program has grown from two students in 2006 to a team of 21 students today. Training includes facilitating and encouraging communication among the providers, patients, and family members. Students can offer brief and long term individual, couple, and family therapy, as well as provide behavioral health services in each clinical setting.
“This is something that is gaining momentum nationally as research is showing time and time again that we can improve health outcomes better when we integrate services into the medical visit versus forcing patients to choose their medical health over behavioral health. To us, it is all health,” Hodgson said.
ECU master’s and doctoral level students and faculty associated with the Greene Country Health Care Inc. Integrated Behavioral Health Care Project stand in front of ECU’s Redditt House. (Photo by Kathy Muse)
ECU’s program was the first of its kind in the nation and is one of two medical family therapy programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education. It is housed in the Department of Human Development and Family Science in the College of Health and Human Performance.
–Kathy Muse