FSU College of Medicine 2018 annual report 2019 Annual Report | Page 36

COMMUNITY-BASED MEDICAL EDUCATION
34
FSU BEHAVIORALHEALTH: THE NEXT FRONTIER
In late 2019, the College of Medicine announced that FSU
CALLING DR. Q:
A GROUNDBREAKING CONNECTION
difficult to navigate, said Flynn, partly because patients are Stephen Quintero led a class of physician assistant
BehavioralHealth would be joining its family of clinical often unsure what kind of care or provider they need – a students as they took a full patient history, listened to heart
practices. psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker? The collaboration and lung sounds, examined the patient’s ears, evaluated
and integration allow for the practice to be a one-stop shop her throat and came up with a differential diagnosis – even
for patients. though the patient was six miles away. It was a telehealth
“In a nutshell, FSU BehavioralHealth at Apalachee Center
is an outpatient clinical care center for children and adults
with depression, anxiety or mood disorders – which are the “The theme that emerges from all the different surveys, most common mental health disorders,” said Heather Flynn, discussions, focus groups and community meetings is that, The students and Quintero were at the College of
vice chair in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and in our area, we do not have adequate access to high-quality Medicine’s main campus Oct. 30. The patient was at
Social Medicine and medical director for the new practice. outpatient mental health services for kids and adults,” said Tallahassee Memorial Hospital’s Transition Center, where
FSU BehavioralHealth will be situated within the new Flynn, who partnered with the Mental Health Council of the Quintero served as founding medical director. The link
Depression and Anxiety Center, which integrates behavioral Big Bend. connecting them was an internal medicine resident at the
health research, interdisciplinary training and clinical care.
FSU BehavioralHealth at Apalachee Center will provide
“The center will provide evidence-based, state-of-the-art its services near Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare in a
care for these disorders and also serve as an interprofessional building owned by Whole Child Leon.
training environment.”
Throughout 2019, Flynn worked to coordinate the cross-
In addition to a primary partnership with Apalachee
Center, various community partnerships with the Tallahassee
first for the College of Medicine.
center, plus the telehealth technology that allows long-
distance examination of patients.
It’s just one example of telemedicine creating opportunities
and solving problems at the College of Medicine. There are
many more:
university partnerships that made the clinical practice Pediatric Behavioral Health Navigation Program, and 2-1- possible. It will be staffed by faculty providers and directors 1 Big Bend will further bolster FSU BehavioralHealth’s from the College of Medicine, College of Social Work, efforts to increase patient access to behavioral health care. a problem. As director of the college’s Internal
College of Nursing and Department of Psychology. It will also be a part of the National Network of Depression Medicine Residency Program at TMH, she
Centers (www.nndc.org) in order to improve access to wanted to send her residents to the Transition
cutting-edge treatment and research. Center for training. However, the rulebook says
“The interdisciplinary component creates multiple
advantages for training and patient care,” said Flynn.
“We’re able to access social work, psychology, psychiatry
The clinical practice joins FSU PrimaryHealth, FSU
∑
In January 2019, Claudia Kroker-Bode had
they need to be supervised by a physician board-
and nursing, and work together as a team to manage a case SeniorHealth and FSU TeleHealth operating under the certified in internal medicine – and Quintero is
together, which is true collaborative care.” Florida Medical Practice Plan at the College of Medicine. board-certified in family medicine. Eventually,
Options for mental and behavioral health care are
they developed a system where internal medicine
residents at either the Transition Center or the
Kearney homeless center could be supervised