During a new interview with HCP Live Editorial team member Patrick Hemming, M.D., discussed his biggest takeaway from his presentation at the 2024 American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine Conference on addressing mental health needs in primary care settings.
Hemming, known for his work as an associate professor and director of resident education at the Duke Outpatient Clinic at Duke University School of Medicine, discussed the Mental Health Care Model for Depression (MHCM), its characteristics, and the general value of addressing mental health. Even in primary care.
“My colleague Bob Smith, who is the author of the Textbook of Psychiatry in Primary Care, is the author of the concept of the mental health care model that we taught yesterday,” Hemming explained. “This is essentially a communication tool for patients experiencing mental health disorders that we see on a daily basis, primarily to help recognize and respond to emotional issues. We provide a framework for working with patients using helpful patient-centered interviewing techniques: tips that patients give us.”
Hemming noted that since understanding emotions is central to mental health treatment, the tool can also help clinicians respond empathetically to such patients. Hemming said they went through four steps in the workshop, first educating patients on how clinicians understand the diagnosis of depression, explaining that treatments exist and that people recover. He said he focused on helping people understand that there are effective treatments.
“We’re talking openly here, recognizing that it may be difficult to do anything different when you’re making a diagnosis,” Hemming explained. “Getting people to commit to trying what we decided to do together, and moving from commitment to having goals that are patient-centered, not clinician-centered, about what is better for them. Masu.”
Hemming also mentioned the value of ultimately putting patients on a medication regimen, as internal medicine physicians frequently prescribe medications.
“So[Bob and his team]developed this model, tested it in a randomized controlled trial, and trained primary care physicians and nurses to use these drugs and use counseling techniques. . And we found that this worked very well,” Hemming explained. “So the goal was to simplify a complex task for people who have a problem that’s hard to pin down. We might find a good answer to it.”
To learn more about this presentation, check out the full interview posted above.
The quotes contained herein have been edited for clarity. Hemming is not affiliated with any entity whose principal business is the marketing, sale, production, resale, or distribution of healthcare products for use by or for patients.
