“Mental health is fundamental to overall health and productivity. It is the basis for successful contributions to family, community and society. Throughout the life span, mental health is the wellspring of thinking and communication skills, learning, resilience and self-esteem.” —David Satcher, Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (2001)
What is Comprehensive Care?
Comprehensive care encompasses both mental and physical health. It coordinates all efforts to reduce symptoms and limitations. And it accounts for circumstances like financial and housing security as well as mindset. It is holistic, integrative, mind-body and collaborative, but none of those words alone describes the model perfectly.
People don’t seek care for a symptom. They seek care when a symptoms becomes a concern.
Feeling better is often a matter of getting from how things seems to how things are. In other words, expertise may not match a person’s gut feelings about what’s going on. To help people reorient, the first step is a trusting clinician-patient relationship.
When it comes time to make a decision about a test or treatment, it’s important to be aware of what matters most to you (your values) and make sure your decisions match those values and are not based on misconceptions.