Upcoming Meetings

I am on the road again this week, working the Appalachians for beautiful foliage and political insight.  But this seemed of interest:

Dear Dr. Keller:

My name is Beth Andrews. I work with Dr. John Straus at the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership. As part of our work at MBHP, Dr. Straus and I develop free educational programs for primary care clinicians. Often, our programs emphasize the integration of primary care and behavioral health, as is the case with our current offering.

I am forwarding to you a brochure for an upcoming forum for primary care providers and ask that you distribute this to as many of your clinical staff as possible and encourage them to attend. The dinner is free. This is an educational opportunity jointly sponsored by the MassHealth PCC Plan, MBHP and the University of Massachusetts Medical School Office of Continuing Education. There is no promotional activity associated with the forum; we simply want to make educational opportunities available to PCCs who see our patients.

The meeting is on November 6 at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester, which has proved to be a convenient location for providers. It is an evening dinner meeting. Dinner is free and so are CMEs (for MDs and PAs) and CEUs (for nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and RNs).

Primary care providers have expressed the need to understand more about what happens in the behavioral health care world once a referral is made for a patient (particularly a child) that results from the screening process. I think you will agree that the topic is timely, given the relatively new MassHealth Mandate to screen all children who are covered by MassHealth for behavioral health needs.

The speaker for this program is Mathieu Bermingham, whom you may know, as he is a child psychiatrist at UMass Medical Center. He is also a consultant with the MCPAP team in the central region of the state. Dr. Bermingham will present four case studies. Each will describe a patient who has been referred for behavioral health care and provide an overview of what happens in providing behavioral health to that patient. In particular, he will describe specialized behavioral health services available to help each patient.

I am hoping clinicians at your organization will find this program of interest, and that as many as possible will attend.

Will you kindly forward the attached brochure to them electronically and encourage them to register? It’s easy to register; just fax in the completed registrations to 617-350-1982.

Thanks very much for you assistance.

Sincerely,

Beth Andrews

P.S. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. eja

Elizabeth J. Andrews, MPH
Director, Primary Care Clinician Plan
Performance Improvement Management Services (PIMS)
Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership
150 Federal Street, Third Floor
Boston, MA 02110

Phone: 617-350-1954
Fax 617-350-1982

I can't post the brochure, but I sure that she will mail it to you.