An Exploration of Pediatricians’ Personal Value on Mental Health: Experience with Integrated Healthcare and its Impact on Physicians’ Lives

Authors

Bridget Anton, Seton Hall UniversityFollow
Jason D. Reynolds 4858637, University of San FranciscoFollow

Abstract

An integrated healthcare model incorporates behavioral health services into a medical setting to address patients’ physical, emotional, and behavioral healthcare concerns. The integrated healthcare model has been associated with positive patient satisfaction and health outcomes, yet limited studies have examined, using qualitative methods, physicians’ experiences of working alongside behavioral health consultants (BHCs) in integrated healthcare settings. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with pediatricians (N=4) working in an integrated healthcare model. Participants shared that as pediatricians they received personal, educational, and organizational benefits from an integrated healthcare model. Pediatricians also reported increased knowledge in effectively addressing mental health concerns for their patients and decreased physician stress-levels. Results of pediatricians’ experiences working in an integrated healthcare setting are discussed with regard to their implications for clinical practice and research.

Keywords

Integrated Care, Pediatrics, Primary Care Behavioral Health, Qualitative Analysis

Author Bio(s)

Bridget Anton is a 26-year-old heterosexual, Latina American woman of Peruvian descent who is in her third year of doctoral study in counseling psychology. She gained experience working as a BHC for a year at an integrated healthcare setting within a hospital system. Her interests are in the area of the intersection of cultural, health, and counseling psychology, and vocational identity development of chronically ill patients. Please direct correspondence to bridget.anton@shu.edu.

Jason D. Reynolds (Taewon Choi) is a 37-year-old heterosexual, male, transracial Korean adoptee who is an assistant professor in the department of Counseling Psychology at the University of San Francisco. His research interests are in the areas of identity, transracial adoption, mentorship, and qualitative research methods and psychobiography. Please direct correspondence to jreynolds6@usfca.edu.

Acknowledgements

Prior to this study, neither author had previous experience researching integrated behavioral health.

Publication Date

10-3-2020

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4719

Recommended APA Citation

Anton, B., & Reynolds, J. D. (2020). An Exploration of Pediatricians’ Personal Value on Mental Health: Experience with Integrated Healthcare and its Impact on Physicians’ Lives. The Qualitative Report, 25(10), 3440-3458. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4719