Integrated Healthcare: Promising Practices Part 1

Dr. Celeste A. Jones 
CSU, Chico School of Social Work 

Dr. Celeste Jones begins her presentation by providing a definition for “Integrated Healthcare”: “A comprehensive, coordinated, and team-based approach to care and decision-making for medical and mental health reasons.” The ideal situation is that a patient/client can have all of his/her mental, behavioral, and medical care needs taken care of at one site by a multidisciplinary team. This approach to healthcare is patient centered and community based. Dr. Jones discusses the attributes and principles of the inter-professional team that is used to deliver this comprehensive approach to health care. He then shares an example of positive changes in a medical institution that were caused by switching to integrated health care – the Veterans Administration Health Care Service in Palo Alto, California. 

Recorded: November 10, 2015