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Commission to Build a Healthier America June Meeting Agenda
This is the agenda for the June 19, 2013 RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America public meeting.
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Toolkit and Report Help Primary Care Providers Treat Patients' Mental Health in a Time of Terrorism
Mental health and primary care in a time of terrorism
America's Health Together and 25 health and primary care organizations worked to enhance primary care providers' awareness of mental health issues and strengthen their capacity to care for their patients' emotional and psychological needs in a time of terrorism.
Key Results
- A Blueprint Report outlined best practices to support America's health care providers as they care for their patients in a time of terrorism.
- Informational tools and clinical suggestions helped primary care providers identify and respond to patients' increased emotional needs.
Key Findings
- The events of September 11th, 2001, and subsequent stressors such as the anthrax scares, have changed the nation's emotional and psychological landscape.
- Primary care providers fear they will be unable to handle the changing health and mental health needs of patients.
- Vulnerable people (those with low incomes, racial and ethnic minorities, and people with a chronic illness or prior exposure to terrorism and trauma) had more physical and emotional symptoms as a result of September 11th than others.
Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with two unsolicited grants totaling $648,184 from 2002 through 2004.