CIPC Blog

Massachusetts is considering legislation called Primary Care for You (PC4YOU) that could have a national impact as the country deals with the challenges of access to primary care. 

Dr. Sarah Pearson shares her passion for training clinicians in chronic pain management through a team-based approach. Learn about her upcoming six-hour workshop, “Working Together: Treating Persons with Chronic Pain,” happening Friday, December 6th, where attendees will gain actionable strategies for holistic care. Discover how Dr. Pearson's expertise in integrated primary care, trauma-informed approaches, and provider well-being shapes her teaching and care practices.

CIPC (Center for Integrated Primary Care) had the privilege of interviewing Ariel Singer, MPH, a community health expert who specializes in helping healthcare professionals develop and implement practical strategies for human-centered health system redesign and care delivery.

"What is the greatest impact you have as a behavioral health clinician (BHC) on the primary care team?”

Clinician burnout has become an alarming epidemic in healthcare, affecting up to 60% of clinicians (Shanafelt et al., 2015). This phenomenon is linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use, as well as elevated errors and diminished quality of care. Various factors contribute to burnout, including systemic issues like escalating quality metrics, administrative burdens, and shorter patient visits.

After an assessment with East Bay leadership and team members to understand the current facilitators and barriers to integrated behavioral health efforts, CIPC faculty developed a day-long workshop on integrated behavioral health.

Part 2 of 2

(Read Part 1) 

This is the 2nd and final part of a 2 part blog post series on the training the CIPC has provided to the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (Mass League). In this blog post, Leslie Salas Karnes, Manager of Public Health Initiatives at Mass League shared her thoughts on the course.

A recent publication in the journal Health Services Research A systematic review of research on empathy in health care provides a helpful summary of the past fifty years of research regarding “empathy.”  This important and timely article included more than 400 peer-reviewed studies on the impact of empathy on key health outcomes

Part 1 of 2 

(Read Part 2) 

Over the last 1.5 years, Mass League has partnered with the UMass Chan Center for Integrated Primary Care (CIPC) to provide three different training sessions to health center teams. These trainings have been received well and have helped to increase the skills and knowledge of CHC providers.

In President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union he described a four-part Unity Agenda, and declared, “By this summer, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will ensure that each of their 122 facilities are equipped and trained to provide in-house medication-assisted treatment (MAT).”