Webinar Addresses Mental Health and COVID-19

In the webinar, an expert panel will share their experiences of caring for pediatric and adult patients prior to the pandemic, and discuss how patients’ needs have changed since then.

The panelists will also discuss the effects the pandemic has had on physicians and other members of the care team, and share some of the challenges they have encountered — as well as solutions they have developed — as part of their ongoing efforts to address behavior health needs of patients, physicians and other members of the care team.

Speaker and Registration Details

Speakers for the May 19 webinar include

• internal medicine physician Eileen Barrett, M.D., M.P.H., S.F.H.M., M.A.C.P.;
• Stephen O’Connor, Ph.D., chief of the Suicide Prevention Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health Division of Services and Intervention Research; and
• Sala S. Webb, M.D., F.A.P.A., D.F.A.A.C.A.P, chief medical officer for Aetna Better Health of Ohio/OhioRISE, a health plan for youth in Ohio who have significant behavioral health needs.

The one-hour webinar is prerecorded and will be available beginning at 8:30 a.m. CT. Click here to register.

More Webinars Coming

In September, the collaborative will post “Addressing Adult Suicidal Ideation in the Primary Care Setting,” which will focus on pragmatic strategies primary care practices can employ to address suicidal ideation with their adult patients. The webinar is a continuation of the “Practical Strategies for Managing Suicidal Ideation and Reducing Risk” webinar, which debuted in September 2021.

All current and previous webinars can be accessed through the Overcoming Obstacles webinar series index page.

About the Collaborative

The BHI Collaborative launched in October 2020. Established and supported by the AMA, the collaborative’s objectives are to “promote the integration of behavioral and mental health care into overall health care” and “help make behavioral health more accessible by providing best-in-class support to physicians working to combine mental and physical health services in their medical practices.”

The collaborative also created the BHI Compendium, which offers guidance on integrating behavioral health care into a practice so it’s effective for the practice and patients. In addition, the collaborative created a series of BHI practice guides on topics including pharmacological treatment, substance use disorder screening and prevention, and suicide prevention, along with other resources.