During this October 17 Webinar, Heather Wilson, LCSW, discussed complex behavioral health needs in patients and the relation to care coordination. Attendees were asked, ‘how could we do better’ and ‘whose responsibility is this’?
Heather introduced us to Teddy, a transient man found unresponsive in the park who was taken to the emergency department for care. As we learned more about Teddy, we learned some of the assumptions made about him and his care needs were not valid. As more information was made available, attendees were asked to consider, ‘how could we do better’ and ‘whose responsibility is this’?
Often times, we let biases’ and judgement come into play when we are presented with those labeled as ‘multi-visit patients (MVPs). This case study took place in an emergency department, but Wilson encouraged attendees to apply these principles for improved care coordination across all care settings.
One attendee commented, “I do feel overall we have a strong care coordination program in our organization. However, there is always lessons to be learned and resources that can be shared. I really appreciated the case study. It reminded me to check my biases ‘and assumptions and really focus on the patient’s basic needs firsts. We need to gain trust and work to understand what is important to them. Very well done presentation and I was impressed with the variety of input from those in attendance.”
Another attendee commented, “This presentation helped me to remember that we need to address those basic things that patients might need or be struggling with before we can expect them to be compliant with health care recommendations.”
Speaker: Heather Wilson, LCSW
Great Plains Quality Innovation Network
Quality Health Associates of North Dakota
Wilson earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Dakota in 2004. Since, she has focused in the world of behavioral health and worked for the State of North Dakota for 19 years. Regarding clinical practice, Heather started her career working in a prison-setting, focused on the treatment of individuals convicted of sexual offenses. She then spent the next 17 years of her career working at a public human service agency. Clinically, she specialized in working with trauma, criminal behavior, personality disorders, crisis management, and co-occurring disorders.
Heather earned her independent clinical social work license in 2006 and since has provided a great deal of clinical supervision to other clinicians, new MSWs in the field, and has worked with several university students in field placement.
Over the past decade, in addition to clinical work, Heather was in administration, overseeing clinic operations, quality improvement and managing several change initiatives. Heather served on a statewide leadership team aimed at addressing gaps in service across the State and advocated for systems change to address these gaps. It was during this work, that Heather found a love for advocacy and her voice to “be bold” and speak up for those that don’t have a seat at the table.
In July of 2023, Heather was hired by Quality Health Associates of North Dakota as a Quality Improvement Specialist. She is excited to be the first behavioral health provider at this agency and looks forward to what can be done with this opportunity to advance health, equity and access.