9th Annual Conference

Presenters share a combined 19 years of experience integrating wellness services into FQHCs, supporting multiple agencies in their journey to innovative patient care. As more health centers are integrating wellness services such as group medical visits and integrative medicine specialties, we are beginning to see common themes emerge in the challenges of the work. Among the most challenging are full agency buy-in; implicit bias of who deserves to be well and what it means to be well in our society; as well as provider/staff burnout and communication in the chaotic setting of Community Health Centers. These issues can manifest in poor attendance in groups or low referrals, impacted services with long wait lists, lack of information about the services for staff and patients, and conflict in the agency about the value of services.

We believe that wellness care is the work of culture change. In this session, we will share helpful tools in creating whole system and whole person care and moving from innovation to transformation. Focus will be on lessons learned from delving in the trenches of wellness care and sharing tools to develop programs from the ground up or expanding current programs. Topics will include recommendations for patient/community needs assessments, provider and staff surveys and guidance for clarifying agency values about wellness. Our goal is that those attending will be able to leave the workshop with tools or ideas they can implement upon their return.

We have extensive leadership experience and a combined 22 years of experience working in Federally Qualified Health Centers. We have supported multiple FQHCs as they develop wellness programming for their patients and have seen the challenges first hand. As a behavioral health specialist and a family physician, we both understand the unique challenges in community health centers, and approach whole person care through an interdisciplinary lens.

Transformation of care, addressing challenges, values clarification, wellness, whole person care, culture change, tools, preventing burnout

Presentation/Lecture with Discussion: present information and engage the learners in discussion about the material.

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels