Patterson, JoEllen, Peek, C. J., Heinrich, Richard L., Bischoff, Richard J., & Scherger, Joseph. Mental Health Professionals in Medical Settings: a Primer

Adolescence, Winter, 2004

PATTERSON, JoEllen, PEEK, C. J., HEINRICH, Richard L., BISCHOFF, Richard J., & SCHERGER, Joseph. Mental Health Professionals in Medical Settings: A Primer. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2002. 232pp. $40.00 (h).

This book illustrates the importance of taking an integrated approach to health care and outlines the skills that a mental health professional needs for working in a medical setting. The authors, trained in health psychology, psychiatry, family medicine, and marriage and family therapy, build a persuasive case for their holistic, biopsychosocial approach to the traditionally fragmented fields of primary care and mental health care. This is a primer for mental health professionals working in a medical setting. Part I discusses health care settings. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the specific cultures of primary care, specialty care, and mental health care, and Chapter 3 discusses ways to balance the clinical, operational, and financial perspectives of health care. Part II provides information on how to build collaborative medical care, including getting started (Chapter 4), expanding the therapist's identity and role in medical clinics (Chapter 5), working within the medical system's organizational framework (Chapter 6), working with the common problems that patients present in primary care (Chapter 7), and ways to promote healthy behavior change (Chapter 8). The book concludes by highlighting some of the opportunities that exist for therapists who want to be part of this important shift in how health care is provided.