Mar 29, 2021
Nearly 1 in 5 adults experience a severe mental illness in their lifetime. Dr. Tom Young is a physician, and he has developed a screening tool for other professionals in the health industry. The tool helps physicians realize when they need to refer out to mental health providers. I'm looking forward to you hearing from Dr. Tom and learning about the technology that he's put together with his team at nView Health. Plus, we chat about the use of innovative technology and data insights to positively impact all those who serve this vulnerable population.
Meet Dr. Tom Young
Dr. Tom Young is the co-founder and chief medical officer of nView Health, an innovative software company that helps you better identify, treat and monitor patients with behavioral health conditions, featuring the world’s most trusted digital assessment – the M.I.N.I.
Primary care physicians make 80% of diagnoses and decisions around behavioral health and get it wrong 92% of the time. nView’s suite of online behavioral health solutions empowers primary care physicians, pediatricians, behavioral health practices, psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors who specialize in identifying and treating patients with mental health, substance abuse, and other behavioral health disorders to get it right 98% of the time.
Intersecting Mental & Physical Health
Most family physicians find that there is so much more to their patients than physical health. Of course, there is always the mental aspect of our health. Like most young physicians, Dr. Young was not taught much about mental health back in those days. However, Dr. Young taught medicine for several years, and in those adventures, he began to think more about it. All along the way, he started to understand the depth of opportunity that needed to happen between primary care providers and people's mental health providers. So, Dr. Young began his journey on finding ways to intersect those two worlds, hence nView Health.
The Mental Health Covid Crisis
The concept of mental health has really changed over the last 12 months because of the pandemic. The mental health tsunami behind the pandemic increased anxiety and increased depression. Now, mental health professionals are trying to keep up with the demand. Sadly, it's affecting all ages of people, and we're seeing children needing mental health assistance now a lot more than before. Unfortunately, more than 5 million children in America have some serious mental illness that significantly interferes with their daily lives.
The critical issue for primary care is getting the proper initial assessment. However, if a doctor doesn't know what to look for, they will not be able to spot an issue. So, Dr. Young provides a tool that's quick and easy. It only takes a couple of minutes for the patient to fill out, and it really lets the primary care provider decide where they should focus their energy. Dr. Young's Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) — has been used in patient care and clinical research for more than 25 years.
Coordinating Mental & Physical Care
For the most part, primary care providers want to understand how their patient is doing. Like any other referral process in medicine, doctors will send their patients to you with the hopes that you're able to help them. Then, the patient will come back in between for something medical. That doctor should be able to converse with them about their progress with you in that visit. However, if the doctors don't know what's going on, they will feel left out of the healing process. Then, that's where some of the fractured relationships occur. Sadly, doctors will send a patient for care and then never hear back. Some ways to coordinate care are through phones, tracking tools, and assessments.
Using Data As A Therapist
Dr. Young's daughter is a therapist; she found that this assessment tool was great for her work. First, she gets to provide data back to her referring physicians. Plus, she can see how her practice is doing. As she grew her practice using the interview tools, it gave them greater confidence in each therapist's diagnostic skills. It's a beautiful tool because therapists want to know if their patients are getting better. Well, how do you know that? If you use a tracking tool attached to the right assessment tools, you have the data that shows you what's going on. While on the other hand, you'll have the data to know if your patient is, in fact, not getting better and maybe needing more assistance.
Being transparent… Some of the resources below use affiliate links which simply means we receive a commission if you purchase using the links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for using the links!
Dr. Young's Resources
nView Health
Young Healthcare Consultants
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