The Personalized Care Model: a new approach to evidence-based, patient-focused treatment
12/12/24 01:30:pm
Responding to the needs of our patients, a new approach to PHP/IOP care is focused on individual needs and connection with others.
Started in West Allis, Rogers’ Personalized Care Model allows patients to work collaboratively with their orientation team from day one to create a custom schedule with classes that best fit their needs. The model is expanding, including to clinics in Brown Deer and Oconomowoc and to child-adolescent programs.
“At the core of this new model is evidence-based, specialized care,” says Rae Anne Ho Fung, PhD, LP, executive director of clinical integration, who worked with her team to implement the model. “This has been a true team-effort. We are creating a clinic that is responsive to the changing mental health landscape, increasing flexibility and access to care. Through our Personalized Care Model, we offer each patient individualized treatment to help them recover from what is often more than one mental health diagnosis. We also aim to improve operational efficiency and make space for clinicians to work creatively and to the highest possible degree.”
While patients still receive individualized attention, the Personalized Care Model also puts a focus on group therapy, with possible starting points such as a “Trauma Recovery Pathway” or a “Mental Health Recovery Pathway.” Dr. Ho Fung says most disorders and symptoms can be treated with this model except for primary substance use disorders and eating disorders.
Benefits to patients include increased access to evidence-based interventions to help recover from multiple mental health concerns that may span diagnoses, less isolation and more social connection, and personalized schedules with group therapy led by different Rogers professionals, allowing access to a diverse group of experts.
As an example of how the Personalized Care Model can help patients, Dr. Ho Fung pointed to designing a schedule for a patient who may not be ready for intensive trauma processing, who can instead start with group options that help with trauma education and symptom reduction.
“We have so many patients who need to understand their trauma symptoms more, but may not be ready for that processing piece,” she says. “When I talk to patients, this is the thing they say they feel most excited about, because they feel seen. Some weren’t accepted to PTSD programs because they weren’t ready for a PTSD intervention. This is giving them validation and the skills they need. We see symptom improvement after sessions just dedicated to education. Education is power and can be the starting point for so many patients’ recovery journeys.”
Dr. Ho Fung says an increased sense of connection through group-based work can be especially beneficial post-COVID, considering research shows isolation is a major problem leading to increased mental health concerns such as suicide.
“We need our patients connected to each other,” she says. “People learn to heal through experiences and other means of becoming educated, and peer support is really part of that. Research shows us that peer-support is an effective mental health intervention, indicating that people connecting to each other in group sessions is healing and impactful.”
Different patients may need and desire more or less independent exposure or behavioral activation time and the Personalized Care Model takes that into account, also acknowledging that most patients require additional intervention. In West Allis, the clinic is also piloting written exposure therapy, which Dr. Ho Fung says can show the same rates of improvement as prolonged exposure in about half the time with decreased dropout rates.
“Between this and our Fire Watch program for Veterans and First Responders, I feel very fulfilled in work I’m doing. These are things I truly believe in,” Dr. Ho Fung says. “I truly believe this Personalized Care Model is what our communities need, and to see it come to fruition feels really good.”
