Program Addresses Stress Among First Responders

The Wayne State University (WSU) Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Sciences has teamed with the State of Michigan to develop a comprehensive behavioral and mental health training and support program for the state’s first responders and their families to address the stress they face in their duties protecting residents.

The program, Frontline Strong Together, will be available electronically and in-person to first responders and their families in nearly all of Michigan’s 83 counties this year. The program is being developed and implemented with representatives of the Michigan Professional Firefighters Union, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Department of Corrections, paramedics, and dispatchers.

WSU mental health experts have teamed with Kenneth Wolf, PhD, director of the Incident Management Team, and the 211 crisis and referral network, to develop the program. A $2 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will fund the development of education, training, support, and behavioral health treatment services by experts of the WSU Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. The programs will assist police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, dispatchers, and corrections personnel and their families in addressing and reducing sources of stress from both acute and chronic stressors.

“Frontline Strong Together distinguishes Wayne State University in that the research we do is not in some ivory tower. This is right in the trenches with the community, in real time, to develop evidence-based approaches to help as many people as possible,” says David Rosenberg, MD, chair of the WSU Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. “We go where the data is and implement the best practices.”

Rosenberg says the program is fortunate to partner with Wolf, who has extensive experience as a psychological consultant to the Detroit Police Department, the Police Officers Association of Michigan, and the Wayne County Sherriff’s Department. The Incident Management Team is a nationally recognized consulting and training organization that specializes in preincident prevention, crisis management, and postincident recovery.

The 211 system is a free service that connects Michigan residents with help and answers from thousands of health and human services agencies and resources in their communities—quickly, easily, and confidentially.

The training and resources made available throughout the state under Frontline Strong Together will provide support via academic-backed medical research in a state with a critical lack of support services, especially for first responders and their families.

Rosenberg says statistics indicate that more first responders die of suicide than from injuries sustained in the line of duty. A 2020 study conducted by BLUE HELP, a national organization working to bring awareness of suicide and mental health issues among police officers, showed that in 2019 228 American police officers died by suicide, an increase over the numbers reported in 2018 and 2017. Another study, conducted by the Ruderman Foundation, indicated that police officers are at a higher risk for suicide than any other profession. The number of officers taking their own lives is more than triple the number fatally injured in the line of duty. With the increased stress brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosenberg says he would not be surprised if the numbers increase.

Researchers attribute the higher rates of suicide to the intense stress that accompanies the occupation, the toll of witnessing the strife and harm caused by and to those the officers are serving, and PTSD.

Frontline Strong Together will see WSU psychiatrists develop and manage a statewide clearinghouse of materials that include training videos and manuals, and train-the-trainer curriculums for use in police and firefighter training. A website will be developed that will include videos by mental health experts that provide explanations and positive techniques, and training videos for families and peers. The topics will focus on effective language family members can use to deescalate situations; recognizing self-harm, including alcohol and substance use; psychiatric symptoms; nonviolent communication; when and where to get help, resources for mental health treatment; and coping mechanisms for stress and trauma.

— Source: Wayne State University Division of Research

Health Care Partnerships Focus on Arizona’s Underserved

Three organizations are joining forces to transform health care for underserved populations in Maricopa County.

Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust is investing $10 million in a collaboration between Creighton University and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) in Phoenix that will provide improved access and quality of care to those most in need while growing skilled medical professionals for Arizona. The partnership is designed to reduce growing health disparities that disproportionately affect low-income populations and people of color.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the impact of failing to prepare for and respond to broad, unaddressed health inequities in our community,” says Mary Jane Rynd, president and CEO of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. “The need is urgent, and our response cannot wait. Now is the time for higher education, social services, and philanthropy to join and use our collective capacity to create a healthier, more resilient future.”

The partnership will more deeply integrate SVdP’s Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic into the Creighton Health Sciences—Phoenix Campus curriculum. Creighton faculty and third- and fourth-year medical students have volunteered monthly at the clinic for over a decade, and the clinic will now serve as the primary teaching facility for first- and second-year medical students as well.

Medical, nursing, physician assistant, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy faculty and students will work together to serve patients at a weekly interprofessional clinic, using a team-based approach shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs.

“As Creighton health sciences students consistently rotate through the clinic, it is not only clinical education that is taking place, but an experience at the core of Jesuit education—cura personalis, or care for the whole person, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” says Dr. Randy Richardson, regional dean of Creighton University School of Medicine, Phoenix Campus.

The clinic’s infusion of health sciences students and physician faculty will expand access to preventative, acute and specialty care. It will also allow students to spend more time with physicians while learning to care for underserved patient populations, says John Anwar, medical director of SVdP Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic and an assistant professor at Creighton University School of Medicine.

“Our students will receive an education that is centered at the new frontier of care in medicine—at the place with the greatest need and the greatest opportunity for transformational change,” Anwar says. “They will understand, from the very beginning of their education experience, the inequities in the health care system and their role as professionals to serve and care for the most vulnerable.”

Uninsured patients, rather than receiving specialty and preventative care, often turn to emergency departments for complications arising from unmanaged chronic disease. This not only results in poorer outcomes for patients long-term but also increases the cost of care that hospitals must absorb in treating conditions that might have been prevented.

With greater resources in place, Creighton and SVdP leaders will work with health systems in the Greater Phoenix area to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of uninsured patient referrals between hospitals and the Arizona Safety Net System—a collaboration of more than 40 clinics providing services to those most in need.

SVdP and Creighton’s strengths are well-suited to strengthen the referral system and effect sustainable change. The former, an international nonprofit dedicated to serving those most in need, is a leading provider in the Arizona Safety Net System. Creighton, meanwhile, has established strong clinical partnerships with Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and Valleywise Health, among others.

To lead this effort, the Creighton School of Medicine will hire and employ the Virginia G. Piper Chair in Medicine and Chief Medical Officer embedded at SVdP’s Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic. In addition to overseeing the clinic, the CMO will facilitate communication and collaboration between Arizona Safety Net clinics and hospital systems.

As the organizations navigate a new care model, they will continue to evaluate their strategies, developing new practices focused on reducing inequities in the health care system. A new Creighton School of Medicine role, the Virginia G. Piper Fellowship in Health Disparities, will conduct research and inform the partnership’s efforts to drive systemic change and patient-focused improvements in care.

— Source: Creighton University

Latest Edition of The Life Model of Social Work Practice: Advances in Theory and Practice Now Available

Originally published in 1980, The Life Model of Social Work Practice was the first textbook to introduce the ecological perspective into social work practice. This fourth edition brings the text up to date by expanding and deepening this perspective. Integrating contemporary theory and research findings with numerous case illustrations drawn from a wide range of practice contexts, this textbook provides students with an invaluable introduction to the real world of social work practice and includes knowledge, methods, and skills for advanced practice.

In this book, the authors detail the theoretical foundation of the ecological perspective and the life model’s emphasis on evidence- and ethics-guided practice, culturally competent and diversity-sensitive practice, and the multiple sources of accountability that social workers face. The fourth edition reflects the NASW Code of Ethics and the Council on Social Work Education’s most recent set of competency standards, which accredit social work schools and programs. It is accompanied by a teacher’s guide that provides chapter summaries, recommended teaching methods and skills, questions for discussion, and suggested assignments and identifies where in the text the nine EPAS competencies and their associated practice behaviors are addressed.

— Source: Columbia University Press