Behavioral Health Competencies DRAFT

  1. Practice patient-centered and relationship-based care.
    • Use a guiding helping style and relationship-centered approach to facilitate healing rather than relying heavily on a directing helping style and the use of advice and information.
    • Demonstrate respect and understanding for patients' interpretations of health, disease, and illness that are based upon their cultural beliefs and practices.
    • Demonstrate the ability to reflect on elements of patient encounters, including personal bias and belief, to facilitate understanding of relationship-centered care.
  2. Obtain a comprehensive health history which includes mind-body-spirit, nutrition, and the use of conventional, complementary and integrative therapies and disciplines.
    • Demonstrate patient-centered history taking, using a biopsychosocial approach that includes an accurate nutritional history, spiritual history, and inquiry of conventional and complementary treatments.
    • Administer reliable and valid screening and assessment resources and interpret and provide feedback to patient and other healthcare professionals on the results.
  3. Collaborate with individuals and families to develop a personalized plan of care to promote health and well-being which incorporates integrative approaches including lifestyle counseling and the use of mind-body strategies.
    • Collaborate with patients in developing and carrying out a health screening and management plan for disease prevention and treatment using conventional and complementary therapies when indicated.
    • Utilize the shared decision-making model to facilitate patient engagement and participation in treatment plan.
    • Utilize screening and assessment measures to evaluate treatment progress, make changes in treatment based on ongoing evaluation of treatment progress, and demonstrate treatment improvement over time.
  4. Demonstrate skills in utilizing the evidence as it pertains to integrative healthcare.
    • Evaluate the evidence base for the relationships between health and disease and the following factors: emotion, stress, nutrition, physical activity, social support, spirituality, sleep, and environment.
    • Evaluate the strengths and limitations of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as it applies to conventional and complementary approaches and its translation into patient care.
    • Use EBM resources, including those related to CAM, at the point of care.
    • Identify reputable print and/or online resources on conventional and complementary.
    • Provide education to patients on available treatment options, including costs and benefits of different evidence-based approaches to care (e.g., medications, CAM, behavioral and lifestyle change).
  5. Demonstrate knowledge about the major conventional, complementary and integrative health professions.
    • Articulate national and state standards related to training, licensing, credentialing, and reimbursement of community CAM practitioners.
    • Demonstrate understanding of common complementary medicine therapies, including their history, theory, proposed mechanisms, safety/efficacy profile, contraindications, prevalence, and patterns of use.
    • Analyze and synthesize evidence-based treatment approaches based on medical model, behavioral health, and CAM.
  6. Facilitate behavior change in individuals, families and communities.
    • Facilitate health behavior changes in patients in a collaborative manner using a helping style like motivational interviewing or appreciative inquiry.
    • Help the client find and use his or her motivation and increase his or her commitment to a treatment plan as might occur with a motivational interviewing approach or with attention to the Transtheoretical Model or the 5 A’s.
    • Help the client apply and use behavior change strategies and techniques based on evidence-based models such as cognitive-behavioral therapies, solution-focused therapy, or implementation intentions.
    • Deliver treatment based on most effective and efficient treatment modalities (e.g., individual, couples, family and group education/intervention).
  7. Work effectively as a member of an interprofessional team.
    • Demonstrate respect for peers, staff, consultants, and CAM practitioners who share in the care of patients.
    • Collaborate with community CAM practitioners and other healthcare specialists in the care of patients, while understanding legal implications and appropriate documentation issues.
  8. Engage in personal behaviors and self-care practices that promote optimal health and wellbeing
    • Articulate the importance of self-care practices to improve personal health, maintain work–life equilibrium, and serve as a role model for patients, staff, and colleagues.
  9. Incorporate integrative healthcare into community settings and into the healthcare system at large.
    • Articulate the different reimbursement systems and their impact on patient access to both.
    • Identify strategies for facilitating access to Integrative Medicine services for their patients, including low-income populations.
    • Articulate the principles of designing a healthcare setting that reflects a healing environment.
    • Communicate effectively and efficiently with professionals from other disciplines such as physicians, allied health professionals, health care management and community-based providers and support systems.
  10. Incorporate ethical standards of practice into all interactions with individuals, organizations and communities.

Competency Development

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