One of the concepts under discussion by the PPDA Board is to train Mental Health Professionals(MHP) in diagnosing and treating PPD and also teach them how to connect with medical clinicians. The intent of the latter is to encourage referral of patients with unexplained pain and other symptoms or longstanding "functional" syndromes like Irritable Bowel and Fibromyalgia. The patients are informed they are seeing a MHP not for a "psych evaluation" but for a Stress Check-Up.
A pilot project along these lines is underway in a midwestern city. After meeting with staff at a medical clinic, one of our enthusiastic PPD-trained MHPs had the following encouraging assessment that I thought readers of this forum would find interesting:
Today's presentation went extremely well. There were 10+ staff members and 1 doc. They were very receptive and knew exactly what we were talking about. What they were most interested in was meeting us so they didn't have to just recommend a therapist, but instead they could say "I met Therapist X and we recommend you see her for a Stress Check up." They recognized the difficulty of the stigma of psychotherapy and liked using the "Stress Check Up" terminology and our understanding that their patients are clear that we will not be doing a "psych eval." Therapist Y came with me which worked great.
I hope they will be sending us patients. The manager asked about insurance, how long a wait list we have and what are some of the questions in the Stress Check up or what they can ask the patients to help them see that stress is contributing to their symptoms. Yea! I am stoked!!
If you wish to track our progress, please consider joining the PPDA at www.ppdassociation.org
"The patients are informed they are seeing a MHP not for a "psych evaluation" but for a Stress Check-Up."
That's brilliant! I think that is the way to go because people WILL accept that they are stressed more than they will accept the notion of "psychological."
We are at the point that pain and stress are socially acceptable and "somewhat" equivalent terms. The way the message is delivered can be more important than the actual message itself.
I hope that works for you, and of course your patients.
PPD Association Strategy
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 14:05:01
