Wellness Program

Wellness & Chronic Illness Program 2500 Nesconset Hwy Bldg 16, Suite 63 Stony Brook NY 11790 Tel: (631) 444-8822 Fax: (631) 444-4951 Raja Jaber, MD, ABFP, ABHM Medical Director

The Wellness and Chronic Illness Program in the Department of Preventive Medicine offers integrative primary care and consultative visits. We explore the physiological, nutritional, mechanical, emotional, cognitive, social and environmental web that contribute to illness and disease. With that information we develop a comprehensive plan of care that primarily relies on lifestyle changes: nutrition, better sleep, exercise, letting go of harmful addictive needs and stress reduction.

Our approach to care is evidence based and individualized. We will use pharmaceuticals and collaborate with high tech medicine when indicated. Nutritional supplements are added if indicated as well.

We believe in helping patients take charge of their health and in partnering with our patients to develop comprehensive treatment plans based on their personal goals. This collaborative care may include other physicians and non physician practitioners. We then make every effort to coordinate care with the whole therapeutic team (may include physicians, nurses, physical trainers and therapists, social workers, dieticians, yoga teachers, acupuncturists, massage therapists etc...).

Our hope is to provide a medical home where all can learn about health and healing as it applies to each person individually and to the larger community. We hope to accomplish this with resources in our office and on this website as well as linking and collaborating with valuable wellness and healing resources in our community and on the World Wide Web.

The Wellness & Chronic Illness Program model features the following components:

• Individually tailored lifestyle programs that optimize function and wellness by integrating the best of biomedicine with nutrition, exercise, physical training and therapy, and mind-body medicine.
• An emphasis on patient comprehension of physiological, biochemical, and mechanical changes that result from disease. This fosters a sense of mastery that in turn facilitates behavior change.
• A "whole-person" focus, which pays attention to the contexts of patients' lives (i.e., family relations, occupation, community) as well as complicating factors that may have an effect on illness outcomes (i.e., depression, stress, obesity, arthritis).
• Collaborative relationships between physicians and patients, who work together as case managers and equal partners, developing comprehensive treatment plans that may include others in the patient's social network.
• A team of practitioners (i.e., nurse educators, social workers, psychologists, mind-body specialists, physical therapists, fitness educators, dieticians, yoga instructors, acupuncturists, osteopaths, and chiropractors) that can be consulted as needed.
• The integration of a public health approach to chronic illness management that is sensitive to environmental and socioeconomic factors that affect health and illness, and that emphasizes strong relationships with community agencies, services, and wellness-promoting groups through networking, collaborative initiatives, and train-the-trainer programs.
• Apart from individual clinical consultations, the Wellness and Chronic Illness Program conducts workshops and innovative group visits that provide patients with the knowledge and tools necessary to improve their general well being and master the management of their illness.