Sasha Ericksen, MD, is a psychiatrist at MultiCare Behavioral Health in Tacoma, Washington, and Clinical Faculty at Tacoma Family Medicine Residency program and East Pierce Addiction Medicine Fellowship program. She has an outpatient psychiatry practice, and teaches psychiatry and provides supervision to trainees. She has been co-located with primary care for 4 years. She has previously worked in tribal health, private practice, and group practice.
Dr. Ericksen became interested in Collaborative Care due to the pressures of working in mental health in a rural community, and the promise of collaborating across health disciplines. She recently received a grant to start a pilot collaborative care program at the residency, focusing on an urban underserved community with high rates of addiction. She hopes that the fellowship program will help her optimize this program and make it a successful example for integration in a wider system.
In the future, Dr. Ericksen hopes that integrated care will become more common, more acceptable and more useful for patients and providers. Expanding access and improving satisfaction rates for patients and providers is a worthy goal. She also hopes that integrated health systems can break through long held barriers preventing mental health and medical health providers from working together for overall wellness.