September 19, 2013 - Department Administrator Kristie Golden, PhD was invited by Michael Hogan, PhD, former commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, to participate in a think tank at the Henry Ford Health System along with 19 other participants. The forum was arranged by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention to explore a framework for suicide prevention in general health care settings. The Zero Suicide meeting, which took place on September 16, 2013 in Detroit, MI, brought together some of the nation’s leading experts on suicide prevention and integrated health care. It was led by Dr. Hogan, David Covington, former Vice President at Magellan of Arizona and Ed Coffey, MD, Vice President of the Henry Ford Health System.
Participants considered a number of clinical care models for eliminating suicide among participants in integrated health systems. One of the most successful was the Henry Ford Health System model of Perfect Depression Care, which, through collaboration between physical health and behavioral health providers, reduced suicides by 82 percent over 8 years among patients receiving mental health care in their network.
Dr. Golden was invited because of her expertise in developing and evaluating models of care that integrate mental health services into primary care settings. She chairs the Behavioral Health Organization Provider Advisory Board for Long Island, a group of executives from mental health and chemical dependency providers and representatives of consumer and family advocacy groups, charged with assisting the region’s Behavioral Health Organization to develop approaches that support recovery using an integrated care model.
