The Surgeon General

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The Surgeon Generals Workshop on Womens Mental
Health

• November 30 - December 1, 2005
• Breakout Group 5
• R Dale Walker, MD
• Identification and Intervention Issues

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Key Priority Issues

• 1 - Preventive interventions for the most common
  and disabling disorders, such as major depression
  and anxiety
• 2 - The need for screening for depression, and
  other common mental disorders in primary care,
  schools, and other settings
• 3 - The importance of consumer and provider
  empowerment, self-determination, and choice in
  mental health treatment

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 1 Preventive interventions for the
  most common and disabling disorders, such as
  major depression and anxiety
• Message
• The concept of mental health must be broadened to
  take into consideration other systems, e.g.
  primary health, education, employment, and
  housing, recognizing that mental health impacts
  and is impacted by these systems
• Strength-based approach
• Highlights prevention as the beginning of the
  continuum of care
• Expands the scope of service across generations,
  from individuals to families

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 1 Preventive interventions for the
  most common and disabling disorders, such as
  major depression and anxiety
• Audiences
• Entire health care system
• Schools
• Employers
• Insurers
• Community
• Self-help

5
Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 1 Preventive interventions for the
  most common and disabling disorders, such as
  major depression and anxiety
• Format
• Create community partnerships with health care,
  employers, schools, managed care, insurers, and
  peer support
• Treatment must connect women in care to other
  systems options
• Develop and enhance community involvement in the
  intervention process

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 1 Preventive interventions for the
  most common and disabling disorders, such as
  major depression and anxiety
• Cultural Concerns
• Recommendations will be community driven and
  developed by stakeholder partners
• Consideration of self-directed complementary and
  alternative treatments should all be apart of
  tool kit and communiqué development

7
Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 2 The need for screening for
  depression, and other common mental disorders in
  primary care, schools, and other settings
• Message Identify and develop holistic screening
  tools for assessment of mental disorders
• Audiences Federal agencies, funders, schools,
  providers, and consumers

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 2 The need for screening for
  depression, and other common mental disorders in
  primary care, schools, and other settings
• Format
• Identify, develop, and evaluate a community-based
  tool kit that identifies important domains of
  mental health functionality, provides examples of
  effective tools, and reviews recent scientific
  research on this topic
• Develop education protocol on how to use these
  assessment tools
• Identify champions to promote the use and
  integration of these tools within communities

9
Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 2 The need for screening for
  depression, and other common mental disorders in
  primary care, schools, and other settings
• Cultural concerns
• Tool kit will be community driven and developed
  by stakeholder partners

10
Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 3 The importance of consumer and
  provider empowerment, self-determination, and
  choice in mental health treatment
• Message
• Community involvement is necessary to establish a
  process for empowerment and self-determination
• There are multiple barriers (language, culture,
  financial) that need to be removed to empower
  consumers and providers. Federal agencies such as
  health, education, vocational, and judicial need
  to help remove these barriers.
• A collaborative care strategy is necessary to
  overcome financial and administrative silos.

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 3 The importance of consumer and
  provider empowerment, self-determination, and
  choice in mental health treatment
• Audiences
• Entire health care system
• Schools
• Employers
• Insurers
• Community
• Self-help

12
Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 3 The importance of consumer and
  provider empowerment, self-determination, and
  choice in mental health treatment
• Format
• Consumer education communiqué for consumers,
  providers, and advocates
• Tool kit on advocacy and community mobilization
  for empowering women
• Develop an intergenerational worksheet/plan of
  management for mental health issues
• Develop local mental health care decision making
  flow sheet, perhaps similar that developed by
  Cancer Regional Centers. Consider using a
  storytelling approach.
• Fully address these issues for immigrant women
  and families

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Components ofCommuniqué or Toolkit

• Key Priority 3 The importance of consumer and
  provider empowerment, self-determination, and
  choice in mental health treatment
• Cultural Concerns
• Recommendations will be community driven and
  developed by stakeholder partners

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Opportunities for Collaboration

• Overlap and Opportunities
• Develop National Clinical Center of Excellence on
  womens mental health issues
• Pilot projects and community-based research
• Special populations-based research
• Faith-based assessment
• Think through a more humane, interactive model of
  womens mental health care regarding trauma,
  culture, and gender
• Develop implementation process team and call to
  action

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Opportunities for Collaboration

• Overlap and Opportunities
• Dont underestimate the power of women consumers
  and develop a strategy to tap those resources
• Develop and incubate community leadership on
  womens mental health issues
• Breakdown the us vs. them barriers, instead
  form powerful partnerships
• Follow the money!!
• Remember safety and confidentiality