Whole Health Initiative Project

The Whole Health Initiative Project came out of discussions held within the “GAP” group—a group of community partners seeking to find and fill the “gaps” within the mental health care system. The project was developed in order to integrate mental health and physical health care in a single setting and to deliver behavioral healthcare services in an innovative, cost-effective manner. Intermountain Healthcare has provided the model, training and the materials for this project, which has been funded by multiple community partners.

Project Goals

• The Whole Health Initiative Project has six objectives:
• increase detection of mental illness in the healthcare population;
• increase detection of substance abuse in the healthcare population;
• increase referrals for mental health treatment;
• decrease the severity of patient’s mental health condition;
• increase patient’s social support; and
• control costs as a result of reduced healthcare usage

Structure of the Project

• Universal Mental Health Screening
• Insurance Eligibility Determined
• Physician's Review of Screening
• Comprehensive Mental Health packets given as needed
• Referral to Mental Health Team as needed
• APRN provides medication management support and consultation to physicians
• LCSW provides on-site therapy

Care Manager coordinates wrap-around care, gives information about community resources, follow-up calls and information on NAMI Utah classes.

Packet Responses Assist with Referrals

After patients have met with a physician and been given a mental health packet, they fill it out and return it to the clinic. The packets are then scored and patients are directed to appropriate mental health team members according to the severity of their condition:

• mild: medication evaluation from the health center physician with available psychiatric consultation;
• moderate symptoms: immediate short-term psychotherapy services from an in-house clinician (acute interventionist), or referral to community providers for longer term treatment; and family facilitation and care management services;
• severe: referral to Valley Mental Health for specialty behavioral health services

Benefits of the Whole Health Partnership

• The project was built by community partners
• It responds to the needs of the community
• It focuses on the strengths of each partner
• It allows for contribution by all partners
• It fits the interests and specialties of the partners

More resources:

• Guide to Developing a Wellness Recovery Action Plan
• An Introduction to Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAP) (pdf)