The Mid-America MHTTC team has returned from 2023's Collaborative Family Healthcare Association Integrated Care Conference. 

This year's conference theme was Building Resilience Through Innovation: Solutions for Integrated Healthcare Today & Tomorrow, which was a perfect fit for our Adult Resilience Curriculum (ARC) presentation. Additionally, the team presented on our new Pediatric Integrated Primary Care: An Implementation and Training Manual for Professionals. Read through the session topics below:

Taking Care of Health Professionals Using the Adult Resilience Curriculum 

• Compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, sleep deprivation and vicarious trauma have long been associated with healthcare (Rossi et al., 2020). The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic did little to improve the quality of life for healthcare professionals. Across US hospitals, healthcare workers had dismal mental health outcomes including significant levels of depression/anxiety, work overload and burnout (Prasad et al., 2021). Women, Black and Latinx individuals and patient-facing roles reported higher levels of stress (Prasad et al., 2021). Addressing the needs of healthcare providers by improving wellness is critical to maintaining the workforce. While many healthcare workers are familiar with self-care strategies, these strategies are often misunderstood or underutilized. Sometimes, attention to wellbeing can even feel challenging or burdensome. We aim to help providers incorporate research-backed wellbeing practices into their lives in new and innovative ways. The Adult Resilience Curriculum (ARC) is a free program adapted for healthcare workers by the Mid-America Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), using best practices from positive psychology, acceptance and commitment therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy to address adult resiliency (Cook et al, 2015). ARC includes 8 research supported practices (e.g., mindfulness, values-clarification, sleep hygiene, physical activity) to promote wellbeing and provides organizational opportunities to address systemic challenges. Among educators, ARC participants had less job-related stress, more self-efficacy, and better use of evidence-based practices (Cook et al., 2015; Larson et al., 2017). Wellbeing is cultivated by people and organizations. This slide-less session will introduce the ARC framework in the context of working in healthcare. Using a tell-show-do approach, participants will ask questions, have discussion, practice, set goals, receive live feedback, and leave with a “personal recipe”“ for resilience that aligns with their values. Program evaluation data from ARC trainings will also be discussed.
• Presented by: Allison Morton, PhD, Erika Franta, PhD, Hannah West, PhD, Christian Klepper, PsyD,
• Co-authors: Jennifer Burt, PhD, and John Andresen, MD

An Implementation and Training Manual in Pediatric Integrated Primary Care

• Training faculty from the University of Nebraska Medical Center will help you navigate implementation of pediatric integrated primary care using a training manual and accompanying on-line modules published through the Mid-America Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC). In this manual, we discuss a multitude of topics ranging from methods of how to "get into" primary medical practices, business options, contractual arrangements, relationship building, screening for behavior disorders, medical terminology, the electronic health record, common childhood diagnoses, service coding, billings, medications, and clinical productivity expectations. The main goal of the presentation is to introduce the manual and provide an overview of the components and topics covered in the manual. Additionally, the presenters will offer suggestions for how to implement elements of the manual as well as how to utilize accompanying on-line training modules in evidence-supported assessment and treatment protocols for behavior disorders commonly seen in pediatric primary care practices. Presenters will guide participants through hands-on exercises to introduce topics included in the manual as well as provide participants with full access to the manual.
• Presented by: Holly Roberts, PhD, Christian Klepper, PsyD, Allison Grennan, PhD
• Co-authors: John Vann, MD, and Joe Evans, PhD