Smoky Mountain hires director to promote integrated care

From a press release:

Smoky Mountain LME/MCO, a public managed healthcare organization, has hired a new director to help promote integrated, “whole body” care in western North Carolina.

Peter Rives, who has 15 years of experience working with organizations that provide or manage care for people with mental illness, substance use and intellectual or developmental disabilities, joined Smoky’s staff in May as Integrated Care Director. He will help guide projects, initiatives and partnerships.

Integrated care involves healthcare providers working together as a team to treat both physical illnesses and psychiatric concerns, including mental illness, alcohol or drug use or a developmental disability. Studies have shown that integrated care can improve people’s health, the quality of healthcare services and patient satisfaction while lowering costs.

Rives holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University and has completed extensive doctoral work in social psychology at the University of Delaware. He served six years as Care Coordination Department Manager at CenterPoint Human Services in Winston-Salem and spent three years as Director of Behavioral Health at Northwest Community Care Network. Rives is also a consultant for the N.C. Center of Excellence for Integrated Care.

Rives is a firm believer in the basic principle that healthcare should be easy to access and treat all of a person’s symptoms, both physical and psychological. “By empowering our systems to care for a whole person regardless of where they present for care, we will be able to offer better quality, person-centered care in a more cost-effective environment,” he said.

“We’re excited to have Peter on our team,” said Sean Jones, Smoky’s Senior Director for Provider Network. “Peter will lead Smoky’s integrated care initiatives and work within our community to develop and facilitate partnerships that will continue to evolve the western North Carolina health care system toward whole person care.”

For decades, healthcare providers in the United States have treated physical and mental illnesses separately, and often with poor results. People with a mental illness or addiction problem are at risk of dying decades earlier than the average person, mostly from untreated, chronic illnesses that may be made worse by poor health habits. At the same time, many people who need specialized behavioral health services will see a primary care doctor but are unwilling to visit a mental healthcare provider due to stigma surrounding psychiatric problems.

Under integrated care, a person may be treated for both mental and physical illnesses, such as depression and diabetes, at the same doctor’s office. Or, healthcare providers at different locations may share a person’s treatment plan, communicate with each other and help people reach their personal health goals. Integrated care may involve non-medical services to improve a person’s quality of life and health, such as assisting with housing or employing peer support specialists.

In western North Carolina, Smoky is working with its network of providers and partner health organizations to start or expand integrated care initiatives in local communities. These include:

•Participating in Project 1300, a partnership to provide comprehensive care for 1,300 individuals discharged from Mission Hospital who have no primary care physician. Many of these individuals have a mental illness or substance use condition and/or are homeless.

•Giving support to embed a psychiatrist who specializes in intellectual and developmental disabilities at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), with plans to develop an integrated heath home to link these individuals to regular care

• Helping facilitate the creation of a new regional comprehensive care center in Asheville that will provide a range of mental health, substance use, pharmacy and peer support services

• Working with MAHEC and Northwest Area Health Education Center to train different types of healthcare providers across 23 counties in integrated and collaborative care

• Adopting a process that makes it easier for primary care physicians to refer patients to Smoky for services for mental illness, substance use or a developmental disability and that has increased the percentage of people who attend these appointments

•In Watauga and Avery Counties, working with a Daymark Recovery Services and High Country Community Health to improve screening, triage and referral to services by using telepsychiatry and improving overall communication between these agencies

• In Wilkes County, working with Daymark Recovery Services and Northwest Community Care Network of Community Care of North Carolina to improve service access, engagement and health outcomes by collaborating with primary care and specialty providers

The future of integrated care remains unwritten but very promising. These programs and partnerships – like others across the country – are laying the groundwork for a new era in healthcare, one that holds great potential to benefit patients, healthcare providers and the service system as it currently stands.

About Smoky Mountain LME/MCO

Smoky Mountain LME/MCO manages public funds for mental health, substance use disorder and intellectual/developmental disability services in Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties in North Carolina. Access to services is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-800-849-6127. Visit Smoky online at www.smokymountaincenter.com.