8 April 2024IN MY OPINIONRollercoasters are supposed to be fun, but not when they apply to the delivery of behavioral health. In our American healthcare system, we have made some major strides with several diseases, yet not with behavioral health. Unfortunately, our behavioral health patients still face many of the same issues that they've faced in the past. However, there is hope on the horizon.GOING DOWN...Mental health disorders are chronic diseases, just like diabetes. The challenge lies in that expected outcomes are often less clearly defined than those we have in other medical diseases. Continuing the metaphor of diabetes, we can follow response to treatment based on objective measures like glucose and kidney function, then make rational treatment decisions based on those numbers. A similar metric is much less clear in, for example, schizophrenia. Because of this, attempts to define "standard treatment" for mental health disorders have been elusive.The challenge, then, for payers is that outcomes and expenditures The Rollercoaster of Behavioral Health CareBy Paul Rains, System SVP Behavioral Health, CommonSpirit HealthPaul Rains
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