A Team-Based Approach
Most primary care visits include a mental or behavioral health component – including factors related to chronic disease management, mental health issues, substance misuse, and the impact of stress, anxiety, and depression on overall health. Many patients cannot access mental health care due to a lack of coverage or availability. At Geriatric and Family Medicine, we have fully integrated mental health and behavioral health services in our office. We have partnered with Jefferson Center for Mental Health to incorporate mental health services into our model of care. Your primary care provider will use a team-based approach to support your needs through one of our mental health professionals. We offer in-house therapy and address psychosocial needs such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mental Health Services we offer may include:
Trauma-informed Care Approach
We use a trauma-informed care approach to shift the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” We have adopted trauma-informed practice to improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and overall health outcomes. One way we do this is by offering health and wellness coaching from one of our trained health coaches. Coaching is available as a six-session series to help you achieve your goals. Your coach will meet with you to talk about what’s essential in your life, where you’d like to be, your past successes, and more. They will then work with you to create a SMART goal and actionable small steps to achieve your goal. Some examples of goals are drinking more water throughout the day, managing your stress, packing a lunch instead of eating out, sleeping eight hours a night, incorporating movement into your day, and more.
Healthcare coordination is a patient-centered service designed to assess and meet the needs of patients while helping them navigate effectively and efficiently through the healthcare system. Our Jefferson Center healthcare coordinator provides services and assists with activities such as primary care engagement, assessing social determinants of health, accessing resources, assessing benefits eligibility, accessing transportation, connecting to other healthcare providers, screening for and connecting to behavioral health services, health education, and collaborative patient-focused care.
