Course overview

Radical Redesign of Care: VA Whole Health

This course will expand our understanding of what defines healthcare to truly meet the needs of our Veterans and ensure we address the whole person, their values, and their health and well-being goals, not just their symptoms and/or diseases.
 Faculty

Kavitha Reddy, MD, FACEP, ABOIM

Alison Whitehead, MPH, RYT

 Conference Series

AIHM 2019 Annual Conference

 Required Lessons

1

 Time to Complete

1 hour 15 min

 Non-CME Eligible*

0 Credits

What you will learn

  • Course Summary

  • With the national pain management crisis, Veteran suicides, rising rates of chronic illness despite high expenditures, and healthcare provider burnout, it is time to radically re-envision and redesign healthcare to create a health, rather than disease, care system. We must expand our understanding of what defines healthcare, developing a Whole Health System (WHS) of care that empowers and equips individuals to discover a path to health and well-being.

    The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is uniquely positioned to make this a reality for Veterans and our Nation. The WHS has three components: (1) The Pathway to Empowerment, where non-clinical peers partner with Veterans and their family, exploring their mission, aspiration, and purpose and introducing personal health planning; (2) Wellbeing Programs, which include skill building classes in support of self-care goals, health coaches, and proactive, complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches; and (3) Whole health Clinical Care, where providers are trained in Whole Health, including healing environments and relationships, CIH approaches, and personal health planning. This large-scale transformation requires an interprofessional workforce made up of clinicians and non-clinicians, a well-defined educational and communication strategy, and a cultural shift in the way healthcare is delivered and received.

    To truly meet the needs of our Veterans, we must redefine what healthcare means and ensure we address the whole person, their values, and their health and well-being goals, not just their symptoms and/or diseases. Eighteen design sites have been funded since FY16 to pilot components of the WHS. Supported by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) legislation, VA has launched the full WHS in 18 Flagship Facilities in FY18, the first wave in national deployment. Veteran engagement, activation, and satisfaction, utilization of resources, and biometrics will be tracked, as well as the interface with opioid safety and suicide prevention. This presentation will define the interprofessional roles in the Whole Health System of care, describe real-time examples of each component in practice, share testimonials of successes as well as challenges in implementation across facilities in VHA, and highlight early outcomes in facilities undergoing this system transformation.
    By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

    • Summarize the 3 key components of the VA's Whole Health System of care.
    • Describe the interprofessional roles included in this large-scale system transformation.
    • Explain the limitations in our current disease-centered healthcare model.
    • Discuss the successes and challenges in implementation of Whole Health within VHA.

Course includes:

  • Video recording
  • Downloadable audio
  • Speaker handout(s)
  • 1 Quiz
  • 1 Evaluation
  • Certificate of Completion

Included in this course

Course Faculty

Kavitha Reddy, MD, FACEP, ABOIM

Faculty Disclosures: This speaker has no relevant relationships with commercial interests to disclose.
About Kavitha
Dr. Kavitha Reddy is currently an Emergency Medicine physician at VA St. Louis Healthcare System in Missouri and an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine. She serves as the Whole Health System Clinical Director for the VA St. Louis Healthcare System. She is currently is the Lead Whole Health Champion for the Integrative Health Coordinating Center under the Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation.
About Alison
Ms. Whitehead served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and earned her Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University. She joined VA Women’s Health Services in 2010 as a Presidential Management Fellow. In September 2015 she transitioned to National Program Manager for the VA Integrative Health Coordinating Center, Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation. In this role Ms. Whitehead leads development of programs and policies for integrative health implementation across VA. Alison is the Chair for the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health Policy Working Group. 

Alison Whitehead, MPH, RYT

Faculty Disclosures: This speaker has no relevant relationships with commercial interests to disclose.

*CME/CEU Credits

The CME for this course has expired, however you will continue to have access to your purchased content. 

Enroll Now!

This course is self-paced with no set beginning or end date. You may complete this course on your own schedule and pace. Enrolling in and purchasing this course grants you access to its contents in perpetuity.