Whole Health Approach To Clinical Care

PHILLIPS: I have worked in primary

care

for 17 years and have naturally gained a comfortable level of experience. However, recently I have felt a certain level of dissatisfaction with my practice because I have not seen significant improvements in the

health

outcomes of my patient population. PURNELL: Whole Health then changes the conversation to what problems my patient has and what problems are coming. How can we help this person who comes to our clinic today take the next step forward? PHILLIPS: The reason I sat down to write the letter was to try to explain what it means to practice holistic

health

.

As I wrote the letter, I realized that it had had a huge impact on changing my practice in a very positive way. JACKSON: I've had chronic pain since the mid-80s and no one could understand why. For a long time I felt alone. I felt like no one understood what I was going through. GEORGE: I was experiencing chronic pain related to fibromyalgia. With Ms. Jackson and all my veterans, it is important to know what their personal goals are. If someone told me that my heart might not work properly in the future, maybe that wouldn't be a big deal to me.

But what might be important to me is playing with my grandchildren. JACKSON: I can talk to my doctors and say that they have been very helpful in moving me in the direction I am in now. I can walk on my treadmill for once. I can take my dogs to the park. I can watch an entire movie, something I couldn't do before. I can sleep. I can have a social life and that has proven to be very important. AGARWAL: I think the goals that we've seen in that partnership with veterans really translate to both

clinical

outcomes and veteran satisfaction, to make them feel like they're part of a family, because we really are.

CHARNESS: At the core of what we're trying to do here is something that's really at the forefront of a trend in health

care

, and that is putting the patient at the center of everything we do, that their health is really able to help them. to meet your own personal life goals. That's really a change of direction for health care and it's one that VA has been leading, and it's one that we're trying to implement at the level of this health care system. PURNELL: You can see it in their faces when they talk about holistic health. There is this kind of joy in his work.

I know that when I am happier at work, I will have more to give to the person I work with, and that is what I consider the most amazing gift of total health. REPKO: Those positive stories that are happening in your facilities, because if you deal with comprehensive health, you have positive stories. There is no magic here. We are not one and only, no one else will be able to create this. There's no... it's no different here than anywhere else in the country in terms of being able to replicate this. Get the first champion to deal with it and then it will spread.

REDDY: When I start talking about how these things overlap, how nutrition can affect someone with irritable bowel syndrome or how acupuncture can help someone with migraines,

clinical

providers start listening, because again, their tool kits They have been very limited for so long. that all of a sudden this idea of ​​“oh, maybe there are other

approach

es that could help me with this patient” seems to gain acceptance as well. This then is the notion of comprehensive health. PHILLIPS: Integrated medicine looks at everything. We look at their sleep, their rest, their stress, which is enormous, their nutrition, their communication, their relationships, their spirituality.

If you look at the big picture of a person, you'll have a much better framework to work from. ELWING: I think the

whole

health

approach

has allowed me to recognize that we are certainly taking care of people's medical problems, but we are really taking care of the

whole

person. Mr. Adams has been my patient for a long time, we saw him and there was a small spot on his stomach that I thought was just a small red area, and it turned out to be gastric cancer. ADAMS: I have seen several doctors over my years, and not one, not a single one, has shown half the care that she has.

I think from the earliest memories I can remember of her, she was interested in what motivated me. I just think the program helps you help yourself. CHARNESS: Finding an approach that connects with them and works uniquely with who they are as human beings is one of the most rewarding things for both veterans and their doctors. PURNELL: And a lot of what PACT talks about is engaging in self-management, so holistic health helps move that conversation forward because it helps give you tools for self-management. ELWING: Once you really know your patient, you are more efficient. ADAMS: I honestly believe that if it weren't for the VA and Dr.

Elwing, I wouldn't be alive today.