Health systems are on the front lines in treating mental health and addiction.
Well Being Trust is partnering with health systems and the communities they serve help lead systemic change on the ground in communities, where lives can be saved, and human beings and families can flourish.
The vital role of health systems has never been clearer. Health system leaders, from frontline providers to system CEOs to purchasers and payers, are poised to move beyond treating medical issues to promoting health. If mental health can be treated like any other medical condition and individuals can have timely access to care, there is great opportunity to advance well-being in our great nation.
Learn more about the role of health care in improving mental well-being in the following contexts:
- Clinical Care
- Coverage (Policy and Advocacy)
- Community
CLINICAL CARE
We know the challenges that patients, practitioners, and health systems face when it comes to addressing mental health and addiction. Just as important, we know the evidence-based solutions and opportunities that can save lives. We call for the U.S. health sector and its many stakeholders across the nation to come together in transforming the way mental health and addiction is delivered making it more integrated, and to ensure everyone has access to high quality care, as well to the social and community resources that directly shape individual- and population-level health outcomes.
View our clinical care resources and reports below.
Behavioral Health Transformation Guides
Tools for integrating physical and behavioral health care no matter where patients enter the care continuum. VIEW GUIDES
Advancing Mental Health and Well-Being in the United States
How health systems can improve mental health outcomes through via Care, Coverage, and Community. WATCH VIDEO
A Guide to Promoting Health Care Workforce Well Being During and After the COVID 19 Pandemic
This guide provides some ideas and lessons learned to improve the well-being of the health care workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic is exacerbating existing issues with health care professional burnout. DOWNLOAD GUIDE
Clinical Performance Group
In 2017, Well Being Trust worked with its founder Providence St. Joseph Health system leaders to establish a Clinical Performance Group (CPG) for Mental Health & Substance Use Disorders—an enterprise learning collaborative addressing the most pressing and cost-driving challenges within the health system: integrating behavioral health into primary care; transforming substance use treatment and services; and finding better ways to care for people with mental health issues in the emergency department.
These efforts are building exciting momentum. In Stories of Change: How We’re Transforming Clinical Practice to Better Treat Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, we share four stories of what the group has achieved and learned so far:
- Seattle health care network Swedish is using technology to dismantle barriers to mental health treatment in the primary care office.
- Providence Alaska Medical Center, in Anchorage, is piloting several initiatives that increase access to successful substance use disorder treatment, without stigma.
- With the help of an actuarial firm, we’ve created a tool that could help health care institutions make the business case for using proven behavioral health interventions in primary care settings.
Policy and Advocacy
Barriers to transforming mental health in this country include antiquated policies that treat the mind as separate from the body. Scientific evidence and countless stories from our communities hold up the fact that people do better when treated as a whole, and policy and payment should reinforce this truth whenever possible.
Well Being Trust’s policy strategy and agenda focuses on improving mental health and well-being and increasing access to care — both today and tomorrow.
View our policy and advocacy resources and reports below.
Well Being Trust and The Robert Graham Center Analysis: Projected Deaths of Despair During COVID-19
Alongside the thousands of deaths from COVID-19, the growing epidemic of “deaths of despair” is increasing due to the pandemic. It’s predicted that more people will die from drug or alcohol misuse and suicide, according to research released by Well Being Trust (WBT) and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care. The brief notes that if the country fails to invest in solutions that can help heal the nation’s isolation, pain, and suffering, the collective impact of COVID-19 will be even more devastating.
Healing the Nation Policy Recommendations for Health Systems
Hospitals, outpatient and long-term care facilities, community health centers, and other health care clinicians are on the front lines in treating mental health. It’s critical they are supported to build a “whole health” approach that optimizes prevention, access, and value for those seeking care. There are policy solutions that systematize and institutionalize this approach, from primary care to insurance and reimbursement policies.
United States of Care
Building off the Healing the Nation framework from Well Being Trust, United States of Care is offering immediate and long-term strategies to address and help alleviate mental health concerns in every community. It won’t be enough to address problems within the health care system alone; workplaces, early learning centers, schools and academic institutions, the justice system, and our communities all play an important role in delivering mental health and addiction recovery support services. Each of these pathways is facing pandemic-related capacity issues and, without swift action, this fragmented system will fail to meet people’s needs. In the absence of comprehensive action at the federal level, states, localities, and private entities are seeking and implementing both well-established and innovative approaches to addressing people’s mental health care needs.
Community
There are bright spots throughout the country where communities are coming together to measurably improve the health and well-being of individuals, families and neighborhoods. Well Being Trust is committed to shining a spotlight on these promising locales: amplifying, spreading adoption and adaptation of best practices, and as possible, scaling the innovations for population-level improvement in outcomes.
Well Being Trust believes that together, we can secure the vital conditions for intergenerational well-being for all.
View our community-focused resources for health care systems below.
In support of Well Being Trust’s strategic goal to save 100,000 lives from deaths of despair and dramatically increase healthy life years in the next 10 years, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement is supporting WBT to evolve a set of recommendations and guidance to help propel the field to action by leveraging the role of health care systems to impact the health and well-being of the populations they serve within their walls and across their communities.
Mental Health and Well Being COVID Action Guide:
The de Beaumont Foundation and Well Being Trust released an action guide for local leaders that emphasizes the urgency of addressing the growing mental health and addiction issues in their communities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, including more than 60 evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that can prevent further loss of life and livelihood from the nation’s growing mental health crisis.
This action guide is intended for local policymakers
and civic institutions (e.g., anchor institutions such as universities, hospitals, and other enduring organizations that play a vital role in their local communities and economies; chambers of commerce; philanthropies; and multi-sector collaboratives).
Advancing Spiritual Well-Being in Health Care Settings
Advancing Spiritual Well-Being in Health Care SettingsHow might health care systems take steps toward addressing the root causes of loneliness and despair, as a preventative measure to support greater physical health, longevity, and flourishing among Americans? And what stands in the way?
These resources from Sacred Design Labs describes ways in which we can open up a broader conversation about spiritual well-being within the healthcare industry.
