CHANUTE — Dr. Dave Guernsey, a family physician and president of Ashley Clinic, recently saw a patient who was concerned about her son’s behavior.
Guernsey called Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center to see if they had school-based counselors at the child’s school. They did, so Guernsey set up an appointment for the child to meet with a therapist as soon as school started.
That approach to integrated care — meeting the needs of a patient’s physical and mental health — led to a new partnership between SEKMHC and Ashley Clinic.
SEKMHC acquired Ashley Clinic earlier this summer. The goal for both entities is to provide expanded services.
Mental and physical health go hand-in-hand, Nathan Fawson, executive director of SEKMHC, said.
“So often it’s the case that those we are providing services to have chronic illnesses that are in need of medical services that go neglected, or their form of treatment is going to the emergency room,” Fawson said.
“Our goal is to show them a better way by introducing them to primary care.”
Research shows that those with severe, persistent mental illness tend to die 20 to 25 years earlier than the general population, Fawson said, “and they tend to die not from their mental illness diagnosis but from medical complications.”
Guernsey agreed, saying some patients may be so distracted by their mental health issues that they neglect their physical health, and vice versa.
“Say I’m taking care of someone’s blood pressure or diabetes. If their mental health isn’t being taken care of, they’re probably not going to get their blood pressure or diabetes under control,” he said. “It’s always our goal to explore how we can help someone stay in their home community for treatment and, in doing so, wrap our behavioral health services around them.”Nathan Fawson, executive director of Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center
“When I see a patient with a physical problem who needs mental health care, the old way is to set up a referral with SEKMHC. But often — it could be the stigma, it could be financial, it could be a bunch of in reasons — they never make it there. And then they’re not getting the whole care they need.”
Integrated care has long been a goal of both mental and physical health care providers, they agreed. But health care can be slow to change.
“Because we offer differing specialties and so often work within our own silos, making those connections with one another is the greater challenge,” Fawson said.
ASHLEY CLINIC began 85 years ago through the efforts of a father-and-son family medicine team. They later opened a primary care clinic in Humboldt.
