Latest / Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health / Chris Beamish, Service Line Executive for Mental Health and Addiction at Fairview Health Services

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Chris Beamish, Service Line Executive for Mental Health and Addiction at Fairview Health Services · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

• 0:00
  This is Riley Wilson with the Becker's Behavioral
• 0:02
  Health Podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today
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  by Chris Beamish, service line executive of mental
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  health and addiction care at Fairview Health Services.
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  This is a new role for you, Chris,
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  so congratulations on your new role. To get
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  us started, can you tell us a little
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  bit more about your background and what led
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  you to this new position at Fairview?
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  Yeah. Thanks for having me on.
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  First, I just wanna say May is Mental
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  Health Awareness Month, and I'm honored to be
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  here to share what we're doing at Fairview
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  and to raise awareness about our mental health
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  and addiction services
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  to help address some challenges that we all
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  face in our communities,
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  and also glad to share a bit about
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  my journey. So,
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  I'll start with that. I grew up in
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  Minnesota, and, I was the first in my
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  family to obtain a bachelor's degree and a
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  graduate degree. I remember as a high schooler
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  trying to pick a college and a major,
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  and I remember considering a career in health
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  care administration. But then again, every career interest
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  inventory I ever took kept pointing me back
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  to social work. And back then, I thought,
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  no. That's that doesn't seem right. It didn't
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  I didn't fully understand the depth of what
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  the social work profession entailed, and I
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  thought of social workers a bit more in
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  the way of traditional roles like school, county,
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  care coordination,
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  maybe therapy.
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  So as I was completing my generals
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  and trying to decide on a major, I
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  remember going to the library to study
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  and finding a social work workbook there laying
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  on the table where I always sat, and
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  it was the universe in my heart
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  telling me I needed to at least give
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  an introductory
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  social work course a try.
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  That book laying on the on the table
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  where I always sat was
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  it the universe's way of smacking me in
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  the forehead saying, lean in, try this, trust.
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  And needless to say, I followed my heart,
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  and social work was the right field for
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  me.
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  The professions, values, the code of ethics, it
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  all aligned with my beliefs that we all
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  have a call to uphold the dignity and
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  respect of others and to promote social justice
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  for all.
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  And social work really is about service and
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  doing least amount of harm to others.
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  And I knew that this would be a
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  career where where I could make a meaningful
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  impact in people's lives.
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  So,
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  as I entered the last semester of my
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  bachelor's degree,
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  in social work, I had the option to
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  complete an internship in Wisconsin
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  or in Durban, South Africa. And in my
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  mind, there was only one
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  choice. So I spent three months at a
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  children's home in Durban, South Africa and had
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  the unique privilege of working with kids that
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  were orphaned, neglected, abused, had HIV,
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  struggled with substance use,
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  and,
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  that was life changing for me. The experience
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  really confirmed that my heart and my actions
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  were aligned, and I think that's when good
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  things happen. So
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  shortly after
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  I, earned my bachelor's degree and started working
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  with people with, who who are experiencing serious
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  and persistent mental illness.
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  And I realized that I need to continue
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  my education,
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  and I decided to pursue a master's in
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  clinical social work to really help equip me
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  with the ability to provide clinical intervention and
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  to help deescalate mental health crises that I
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  was seeing
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  and provide people with the tools and the
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  ability
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  to improve their own mental health. So
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  before joining Fairview, I worked as a psychotherapist,
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  and I worked part time
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  on a county mobile mental health crisis team.
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  And that role took me into the community,
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  meeting people and families where they're at in
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  moments of acute crisis and
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  relying on partners in law enforcement
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  and paramedics
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  to really help safely connect patients to care
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  and specifically at Fairview.
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  I developed a strong appreciation for the teams
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  at Fairview at that time. I knew they
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  were capable of healing and saving people's lives,
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  and
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  they these were patients who were often beyond
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  the capacity of what was possible in the
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  community
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  and in the care of other organizations. So
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  I saw Fairview living up to its mission
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  to deliver high quality care and and doing
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  that with compassion, and I wanted to be
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  a part of that. So
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  I eventually applied to Fairview.
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  I remember questioning if I was skilled enough
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  to be the member on the treatment team
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  on the receiving end of those patients coming
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  from the community
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  in crisis.
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  And after joining Fairview, I realized that the
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  multidisciplinary
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  team is what made acute care possible, and
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  I was proud then to have made the
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  team.
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  So shortly after starting at Fairview,
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  a new integrated primary care clinic was scheduled
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  to open, and I was hired to do
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  individual psychotherapy.
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  But I volunteered to be the interim behavioral
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  health clinician at the new clinic until someone
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  was hired into the vacancy.
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  The role was really the first of its
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  kind at Fairview,
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  and was leading, in the state of Minnesota
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  in what we were doing. And I loved
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  being a part of that most multidisciplinary
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  care team. We were really
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  transforming mental health and addiction access and delivering
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  whole person care.
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  That behavioral health clinician role, if you're not
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  familiar, is essentially the mental health equivalent of
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  a primary care provider with the ability to
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  see patients for brief assessment,
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  do brief treatment, make recommendations,
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  referrals, and follow-up as needed.
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  And so by integrating mental health into primary
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  care, we were normalizing mental health. We were
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  increasing awareness of the connection between mental health
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  and behaviors,
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  and the influence on chronic disease and health
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  outcomes. And
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  I loved what we're doing. I saw the
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  opportunity to continue to gravitate towards leadership and
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  progress the growth of these services across our
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  health system.
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  And we did so. And a few years
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  later,
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  the AHRQ came in and did
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  a multi day site survey with us and
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  recognized our health system as one of eight
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  exemplary integrated primary care clinics across the nation.
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  So it was a tremendous,
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  honor to have that, recognition.
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  As I continue to grow and support other
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  parts of our mental health and addiction care
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  continuum, I saw that I needed to strengthen
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  my understanding of operations.
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  And so I went on to complete a
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  master's in health care administration.
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  And, being a clinician, I liked evidence based
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  practice. Now being in operations,
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  my favorite course became evidence based decision making
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  in health care operations. And
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  I quickly
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  gravitated towards the ability to evaluate and solve
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  issues with, things
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  such as queuing theories or other methods to
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  address that, access and staffing challenges.
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  Today, as the service line executive at for
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  mental health and addiction at Fairview,
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  I'm committed to transforming the way that care
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  is delivered and ensuring that care is accessible,
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  it's affordable, equitable, and really focused on the
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  whole person.
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  Great. Well, thank you so much, Chris, for
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  sharing, about your background and your journey here.
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  I'm glad you brought up that it's mental
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  health awareness month. And as you know, there's
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  so many challenges facing the behavioral health field.
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  But if you could narrow it down, you
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  know, what's the biggest challenge currently facing the
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  field, and what's Fairview doing to address this?
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  Hard to name just one. I might throw
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  a few your way here. So let's say
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  the first is access.
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  It's a major challenge. One in five,
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  US adults have a mental health issue or
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  concern.
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  Over fifty five percent of those adults, though,
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  who are experiencing mental health don't actually receive
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  treatment.
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  And those,
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  with, racial or ethnic disparities that are black,
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  Hispanic, or Asian American are even less likely
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  to receive mental health care than white
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  individuals.
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  Insurance coverage continues to be a challenge and
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  high out of pocket costs are a barrier
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  to care.
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  Some of our most innovative population based care
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  models,
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  to treat depression, things like the collaborative care
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  model are not covered by Medicaid in the
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  state of Minnesota.
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  And insurance companies are making it difficult for
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  patients who struggle with substance use to start
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  treatment when they're ready for help. Things like
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  prior authorizations get in the way.
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  Additionally,
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  the cost of medications like Suboxone
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  are often greater than the cost of patients
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  refilling their oxycodone. And so you can tell
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  by that that the incentives are just not
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  aligned for patients to do,
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  the right thing for their health.
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  With that said, Fairview really continues to be
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  a leader. We are doing a lot to
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  address access problems. I mentioned the work that
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  we've done to improve access to mental health
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  care through our integrated primary and specialty care
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  models.
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  We also developed a psychiatry model where referring
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  providers,
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  agreed to provide ongoing medication management when our
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  psychiatry team had stabilized the patient after three
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  to five visits.
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  And the EMPATH is a really trailblazing example
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  of how we're innovating and leading the way.
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  We developed the first of its kind model
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  in Minnesota,
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  among few in the country,
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  designed for people experiencing mental health crises.
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  And the Empath allows us to assess and
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  treat patients experiencing
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  an an acute mental health crisis in a
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  more therapeutic environment than a traditional ER.
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  In that model, patients are taken care of
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  by a care team under the supervision of
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  a psychiatrist, and the results we've seen have
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  been phenomenal.
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  Eighty five percent of the patients treated in
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  our empath are discharged without requiring a higher
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  level of care, and that's a thirty percent
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  improvement over a traditional ED psychiatric care.
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  I mentioned access. I'll go on to say
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  a little bit more about that for youth.
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  We have a youth mental health crisis.
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  Yeah. The access for youth is is worse
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  than for adults. Nearly sixty percent of youth
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  with a major depressive
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  diagnosis
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  don't receive mental health treatment,
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  And suicide is the second leading cause of
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  death among people aged 10 to 14, and
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  it's the third leading cause of death among
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  those aged fifteen to twenty four in The
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  US.
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  Some of the things that we're doing to
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  address this, in 2024,
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  Fairview opened a new co occurring intensive outpatient
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  program
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  at one of our rural community hospital sites.
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  We're opening this year, a new adolescent partial
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  hospitalization
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  and intensive outpatient program.
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  And our community advancement team and mental health
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  and addiction service line have worked really well
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  together to get into the schools and to
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  improve awareness of our programs
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  to strengthen handoffs and integration.
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  I mentioned again,
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  disparities,
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  and
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  achieving mental health equity isn't gonna be possible
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  without addressing disparities in mental health care. Fairview
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  is committed to addressing social determinants of health
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  and health, and I'll show you a few
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  ways that we're doing so.
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  Our teams conduct social determinants of health screenings
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  in Fairview primary care and mental health clinics.
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  We also recently revamped our food as medicine
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  program. It's now called Fairtable,
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  where patients facing food insecurity can receive
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  fresh locally sourced food weekly,
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  from local farms,
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  or they can receive help from our health
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  system's food navigator team to access resources and
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  programs.
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  Last year, our health system did something amazing
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  with city leaders. They partnered to erase $37,000,000
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  of medical debt for 32,000
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  residents,
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  making it easier for individuals to focus on
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  health and wellness.
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  And we have lots of other community partnerships
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  that are important to us and our communities
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  and
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  and that help,
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  people access stable, affording house
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  stable and affording
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  afford I'm sorry. Stable and affordable housing.
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  I'm really proud
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  to to,
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  work at Fairview and of our commitment to
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  partner with the communities that we serve,
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  within and beyond our walls.
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  Lastly, I'll just mention reimbursement,
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  being a barrier and a challenge that we
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  face.
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  Rates for mental health services are paid well
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  below the cost of providing care, and the
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  empath is a really good example of this.
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  We innovated. We're we're seeing great outcomes, and
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  the payers haven't yet caught up with or
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  accepted the need for a new reimbursement model
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  to cover our costs.
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  The outcome has been savings, as we mentioned,
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  for communities and for payers, but it's at
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  the expense of our health system. And that's
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  not sustainable, and it doesn't promote growth of
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  the such, such care models.
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  Last year,
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  a large mental health system in Minnesota was
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  also forced to close its inpatient mental health
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  services, and the cost of providing acute care
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  continues to exceed the current reimbursement rates, and
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  that's just not sustainable for health systems.
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  Also, last year,
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  Minnesota medical assistance,
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  had completed a rate study,
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  and that was published. And it provided a
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  proposal to increase rates so that,
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  health systems could sustain their services and,
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  communities' access to care. And so there's a
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  bill moving through,
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  the house and senate in Minnesota, and we
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  hope that gets supported.
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  We are now faced with proposals to end
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  facility fee reimbursement,
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  and those are necessary for us to cover
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  our costs. So
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  as a health system, we continue to advocate
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  to legislators to support increases to mental health
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  reimbursement rates. And, again, I'm proud of Fairview
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  for developing
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  a system wide advocacy network.
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  This is really cool. We have empowered our
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  employees to share their voice with legislators
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  because it takes more than one voice.
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  Great. Well, it sounds like you're accomplishing, you
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  know, so much across so many different areas
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  at Fairview.
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  But we know that working in mental health
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  can be challenging.
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  How do you go about supporting your workforce,
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  your team, and how do you make sure
• 13:50
  they have the resources needed to continue providing
• 13:52
  care?
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  That that's a big question, and it really
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  does take a multimodal approach to helping employee
• 14:00
  engagement and improving quality.
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  But it starts with taking care of our
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  employees. In the mental health field,
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  our teams are really the intervention. I I
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  think of them,
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  if we equate it to surgical services, we
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  are the procedure instrument.
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  And our employees are at their best when
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  they're taking care of themselves, and so we
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  encourage
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  them to take their time off, to plan
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  time off, to use our health and wellness
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  benefits,
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  so that they're able to come back,
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  to work sharp with the right energy,
• 14:30
  and the right attitude every day.
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  We really work hard to ensure that we
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  also remove the obstacles to them doing their
• 14:37
  best work every day,
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  ensuring they have the tools that they need
• 14:41
  to let they can spend more time with
• 14:42
  the patients in front of them. And,
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  another big way that we're working to support,
• 14:48
  our employees is through bidirectional
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  bidirectional communication,
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  and
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  that starts with me as a leader, and
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  our frontline
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  having the ability to,
• 14:59
  communicate through tiered huddles,
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  celebrating things that went well yesterday, learning from,
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  what we could improve on yesterday,
• 15:08
  escalating just in time issues, needing resolution for
• 15:11
  today, and,
• 15:13
  really making an intentional effort as a leadership
• 15:15
  team to get out and round with our
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  sites and to hear directly from care team
• 15:19
  members about what's working well and what can
• 15:21
  be improved.
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  We we also,
• 15:24
  have scheduled quarterly town hall meetings and distribute
• 15:28
  bimonthly news newsletters to ensure that team members
• 15:31
  are connected to us and hearing,
• 15:34
  from us.
• 15:36
  We, new this year,
• 15:38
  launched a new idea intake form for frontline
• 15:41
  staff to submit their ideas.
• 15:43
  We believe that the best ideas come from
• 15:45
  the frontline, and we wanna support their ideas
• 15:48
  for innovation and process improvement. And so we
• 15:51
  created,
• 15:52
  a Microsoft form
• 15:54
  where we now have the ability to track
• 15:56
  their ideas and give them closed loop communication
• 15:59
  about our service lines organizational readiness to act
• 16:02
  on those ideas and to to pull them
• 16:04
  in to be a part of the design
• 16:05
  and the implementation
• 16:07
  too.
• 16:08
  Overall, I would say this organization is committed
• 16:11
  to making this the best place to work
• 16:13
  and receive care through our commitment to community
• 16:16
  continuous quality improvement, and that is that's evident
• 16:20
  in the way that people show up every
• 16:22
  day for our patients and for our teams.
• 16:26
  Great. Well, just quickly before we go, Chris,
• 16:29
  can you share with us, you know, what
• 16:30
  is your longer term vision for mental health
• 16:32
  and addiction care at Fairview look like?
• 16:35
  Yeah. Great question.
• 16:37
  I believe we need to continue to break
• 16:38
  down stigma,
• 16:40
  around mental health because mental health is health,
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  and the national data tells us that it's
• 16:45
  often untreated.
• 16:46
  We need to continue to strive to be
• 16:48
  the best partner we can to our communities,
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  including getting further upstream with a focus on
• 16:53
  early intervention,
• 16:54
  prevention,
• 16:55
  within school districts and community.
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  And we're gonna continue to roll up our
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  sleeves and expand upon innovative care models. We
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  need to continue to ensure that patients have
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  access to high quality preventative and acute care.
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  Ultimately ultimately, my goal, is for Fairview to
• 17:11
  lead in the region. We we,
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  are we hire the best, and we wanna
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  provide the best, mental health care, not just
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  by treating patients in crisis,
• 17:21
  but by helping them thrive holistically
• 17:24
  over the long term.
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  I would close by saying that, you know,
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  mental health isn't just a personal issue. It's
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  a leadership imperative. And I think the more
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  that we talk about it, the more we
• 17:34
  normalize it, the more we invest in it,
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  the stronger our teams will be, the stronger
• 17:38
  our decisions will be, and the greater our
• 17:41
  organizations will become.
• 17:42
  So, take care of yourselves, take care of
• 17:44
  each other, and keep leading with intention.
• 17:49
  Great. Well, thank you so much, Chris, for
• 17:51
  sharing your insight and your vision here. We
• 17:53
  hope to have you back again soon.
• 17:55
  Thank you so much.