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In my blog last week, I talked about a high-powered "think tank" meeting I attended that discussed the future of health care. Whenever I talk to anyone about my experience and what I learned there, I always get the same response: "Man, is that depressing; don't you have any good ne...
As an intern with a major mental health organization, I have had the opportunity to attend some meetings and conferences concerning the future of health care as well. What I have gotten out of these meetings, is that due to high co-morbidity of mental health problems and physical health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer (all of which contribute to the statistic that averagely, consumers die 25 years earlier than the typcial American), primary care doctors are going to have to start to learn how to actively listen to their patients, and work alongside mental health professionals in order to prevent these morbidity and mortality rates. There is going to have to be an integration of physical health care and mental health care. Finally, in an evidence-based health care conference, I learned that physicians are going to have to learn how to truly use evidence-bases in their work, because many are not currently doing so, and are not nearly as up to date as people like to think they are. People put ultimate trust in their physicians, but their physicians may not be using "best practices" or thoroughly researching what they do from all angles. This is a scarey thought. The future of healthcare must change, and I am glad to see that the President of DBSA is going to such meetings, to lend the consumer voice. Keep up the good work!