Integrating Behavioral Health and Serious Illness Care in a Post-COVID-19 Environment

Daniel Shalev; Brigitta Spaeth-Rublee; Stephanie Cheung; Jon A Levenson; Harold Alan Pincus

doi:10.1176/appi.ps.202000903

Integrating Behavioral Health and Serious Illness Care in a Post-COVID-19 Environment

Psychiatr Serv. 2021 Dec 1;72(12):1467-1470. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000903. Epub 2021 Jun 9.

Authors

Daniel Shalev¹, Brigitta Spaeth-Rublee¹, Stephanie Cheung¹, Jon A Levenson¹, Harold Alan Pincus¹

Affiliation

¹ Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City (Shalev); Department of Medicine, Division of Palliative Medicine (Shalev), and Department of Psychiatry (Pincus), Columbia University, New York City; Division of Mental Health Services and Policy Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City (Spaeth-Rublee, Pincus); Department of Psychiatry, Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (Cheung, Levenson), Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (Pincus), and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (Pincus), Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City. Benjamin G. Druss, M.D., M.P.H., and Gail Daumit, M.D., M.H.S., are editors of this column.

Abstract

Individuals with serious medical illnesses experience high rates of comorbid behavioral health conditions. Behavioral health comorbidity affects outcomes in serious illness care. Despite this consequence, behavioral health remains siloed from serious illness care. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors presented a conceptual model of behavioral health integration into serious illness care. In this column, the authors reflect on this model in the context of the challenges and opportunities posed by COVID-19.

Keywords: Coronavirus/COVID-19; Quality of care; palliative care; serious illness.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Critical Care
Critical Illness
Humans
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding