Julie Christiansen, ARNP is currently working as a psychiatric consultant in a primary care setting at CHAS Health, a community health organization based in Spokane. She splits her time between an urban clinic in the downtown corridor with a large homeless population in Spokane as well as a small rural community in Deer Park. Her daily panel is a mix of initial intakes, consultations with primary care providers and follow up appointments. One of the most satisfying aspects of the practice is the opportunity to work with complex, treatment resistant patients when they experience an improvement in function. The volume and complexity of patients keeps the day interesting.
Integrated care at CHAS Health has the potential to improve mental health outcomes in the primary care setting. CHAS Health’s Market Street clinic currently has a modified integrated care practice with a strong psychiatric consultant based there. One goal for Ms.Christiansen is becoming better equipped to implement a more integrated approach to psychiatric services at CHAS Health’s downtown and Deer Park clinics. She looks forward to learning skills related to providing psychiatric consultation to primary care providers who are resistant to change from “usual practice”.
Five years from now, she would like to see an established integrated care model at CHAS Health across all clinics, allowing increased access to psychiatry services in the primary care setting.