Public Health – Page 8 – Tarrant County Physician Online

JPS Opens Clinic to Serve Growing Behavioral Health Needs of Tarrant County

JPS Health Network announces the opening of a new outpatient Behavioral Health clinic that will both increase the number of patients it can treat and allow it to enhance the services it offers people in need of care.

Called the JPS Center for Behavioral Health Recovery, the facility has replaced the outdated, Hemphill Outpatient Behavioral Health clinic, which was on the southwest corner of the JPS campus in Fort Worth. The facility is located a few blocks to the north in a more inviting and more purposefully designed building at 601 W. Terrell Avenue.

Slightly larger than the Hemphill site, the new clinic features a much more efficient use of space. Doctors, nurses and other team members cared for about 160 people each day at the former building. They expect to be able to greatly expand their capacity to serve those with behavioral health needs at the new site.

“I challenge people who say facilities don’t have anything to do with the quality of care that we can provide to patients,” said Teneisha Kennard, Executive Director of Behavioral Health Ambulatory Services at the health network. “We prioritize treating our patients with dignity and respect, and this new building will show our patients and community our commitment to caring for them. There is dignity, respect, and a sense of worth in this new building.”

The Center for Behavioral Health recovery will unite traditional outpatient Behavioral Health services offered at Hemphill including evaluation, diagnosis, medication management, brief psychotherapy, psychological testing, and group therapies with access to primary care physicians and lab testing under one roof.

Features of the new Behavioral Health clinic include:

Space for a primary care physician and phlebotomists who can perform tests on-site instead of sending patients to the main hospital, requiring an extra trip back and forth.
Dedicated space for psychological testing and for psychologists to meet with patients
More open and inviting spaces that will contribute to a more constructive environment for patients
Easier to get to, with more on-site parking and a bus stop in front of the building for patients who rely on public transportation.

The new location, which previously served as the home of the JPS Center for Cancer Care, has been extensively remodeled since cancer services were moved in May 2019 to a much larger, updated JPS Oncology and Infusion Center on 8th Avenue.

The Hemphill site will be torn down in the coming weeks, and turned into a parking lot to facilitate the next moves in the health network’s $800 million bond construction project. Tentative Phase I plans call for a new Psychiatric Emergency Center to be built on existing employee parking lots closer to the center of the main JPS campus.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 08/13/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 283,762

COVID-19 related deaths: 3696

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 264,496

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Friday, August 13, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 08/05/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 277,004

COVID-19 related deaths: 3669

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 261,968

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Thursday, August 5, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Child Psychiatry Access Network: Collaboration with a Phone Call

By Nanette Allison, DO, MS

This article was originally published in the July/August issue of the Tarrant County Physician. You can read find the full magazine here.

On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, pediatric suicide and mental health diseases are at all-time highs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 10 and 34 in 2019.¹ This research also noted that suicide rates have risen by 35 percent from 1999 to 2018 across the United States.^1,2 With the arrival of the novel coronavirus pandemic and resulting social distancing, financial losses, and increased morbidity and mortality, we have seen an increase in the already high number of mood and anxiety disorders across all age groups. Children and adolescents have been especially impacted because of parental distress, social isolation, and difficulty adjusting to the virtual school environment. Many children with a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis have experienced an exacerbation while others have experienced mental health symptoms for the first time, not knowing how to cope with the stress of their severely altered circumstances. Because the pandemic is currently ongoing, there is scarce research available to quantify the increase in mental health needs in the pediatric population due to COVID-19 and its restrictions.

Primary care providers and pediatricians have been on the front lines and often are the only point of contact for many patients before a suicide attempt. In 2015, researchers used National Institute of Mental Health-funded Mental Health Research Network data from 2009-2011 and found that 38 percent of patients who attempted suicide had made some type of healthcare visit within the week of the attempt, 64 percent within the month, and 95 percent within the year.³ This data shows us that primary care providers are integral in identifying and treating vulnerable patients that may not have access to psychiatric services.

Due to this urgent need for further pediatric mental health care services, the 86th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 11 in 2019, enacting the Child Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN), a telephone consultative service for primary care providers caring for children and adolescents with mental health needs. The caller will be greeted by a member of our team who will ask general questions about the call and can provide resources such as outpatient therapists, local partial hospitalization programs, and/or pediatric inpatient programs in the area if needed. If there are diagnostic questions or the need for support with treatment planning, consultation with a pediatric mental health provider can be arranged the same day.

Your local CPAN team wants to support you as you treat your pediatric patients’ mental health needs. The University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) has partnered with John Peter Smith Health Network (JPS) to provide these services for Tarrant County and eight of the surrounding counties, including Parker, Wise, Cooke, Erath, Palo Pinto, Jack, Montague, and Clay. This service is free of charge with a response time of within five minutes for resourcing requests and 30 minutes for consultation with a child psychiatry provider. CPAN is ready to provide support to Texas primary care providers Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. Just call 1-888-901-CPAN, press 1 for North and North East Regions and press 1 again for the UNTHSC/JPS hub. You will be able to obtain needed resources or a consultation immediately. You can also contact the CPAN coordinator, Janet Thompson, at JThompso04@jpshealth.org to enroll, though enrollment is not required to make a call. We look forward to partnering with you to help your pediatric populations and their families.

For more information about CPAN, visit Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium found at the JPS Health Network website: https:// www.jpshealthnet.org/medical-professionals/tcmhcc.

References

¹“Suicide.” National Institute of Mental Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide. 

²“Vital Signs: Trends in State Suicide Rates – United States, 1999–2016 and Circu stances Contributing to Suicide – 27 States, 2015.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 10, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6722a1.htm?s_cid=mm6722a1_w. 

³Kluwer, Wolters. “High Rate of Healthcare Visits before Suicide Attempts.” High Rate of Healthcare Visits before Suicide Attempts | Wolters Kluwer, April 15, 2015. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/news/high-rate-of-healthcare-visits-before-suicide-attempts. 

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 07/26/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 270,663

COVID-19 related deaths: 3619

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 260,292

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Monday, July 26, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 07/12/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 264,500

COVID-19 related deaths: 3598

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 258,820

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Monday, July 12, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 07/06/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 263,757

COVID-19 related deaths: 3580

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 258,199

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 06/28/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 263,335

COVID-19 related deaths: 3566

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 257,757

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Monday, June 28, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

Tarrant County COVID-19 Activity – 06/15/21

COVID-19 Positive cases: 261,956

COVID-19 related deaths: 3543

Recovered COVID-19 cases: 256,601

Data from Tarrant County Public Heath’s (TCPH) report of COVID-19 activity in Tarrant County, updated Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Find more COVID-19 information from TCPH here.

*These data are provisional and are subject to change at any time.

Deaths and recovered cases are included in total COVID-19 positive cases.

UNTHSC Medical Students COVID Vaccinate the Public

by Steve Martin, MD, City of Burleson PHA
Sarah Andrade, OMS-I

This article was originally published in the May/June issue of the Tarrant County Physician. You can read find the full magazine here.

Pictured from left to right: Assistant Fire Chief Casey Davis; Melson Mesmin, OMS-II; SarahAndrade, OMS-I; Alexander Nguyen, OMS-II; Salma Omar, OMS-I; Fire Chief K.T. Freeman; Steve Martin, MD Not pictured: Caleb Reagor, OMS-I and John Griswell, MD

To provide access to COVID-19 vaccines to citizens in our area, the City of Burleson’s Public Health Division established a Vaccination Clinic allowing large-scale vaccinations in a former High School basketball gymnasium called “The Pit” in the heart of Burleson.

Beginning with 100 doses per week of the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine in January of 2021, the clinic has since grown substantially. As of late April 2021, as many as 6,000 doses per week were being provided. This is due to a group effort put forth by the Burleson Fire Department chiefs and firefighters, the City of Burleson manager, mayor, and city council, the Burleson Police Department, Burleson librarians, Burleson Citizens on Patrol, Burleson ISD, THR Huguley nurses, and the City of Burleson Public Health Division. The clinic has vaccinated over 35,000 people since opening, recently averaging 2,000 inoculations per day when the vaccine is available.

Several of the area nursing and medical teaching institutions have expressed a desire to have their students gain the experience of COVID-19 inoculations and community volunteerism. With this in mind, they have begun sending their interested students to the Clinic to participate.

Medical students from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in Fort Worth, nursing students from the AdventHealth Nursing School in Keene, and EMT students from Tarrant County College have spent time learning to administer COVID-19 vaccines. They are overseen by active and retired RNs and physicians.

The social interaction with a multitude of extremely grateful vaccine recipients has been a truly rewarding opportunity. Below are specific personal experiences and statements made by volunteers:

“I will never forget the 45-year-old woman who sat in front of me to be vaccinated as she broke down in tears, crying uncontrollably, clutching a picture of her recently deceased husband, a COVID-19 victim.”

-Donna Martin, RN

“I loved volunteering at the clinic because I get to share in the excitement and gratitude of the community members who are so excited to finally be getting immunized.”

-Caleb Reagor, OMS-I

“Through the Burleson Vaccination Clinic, I administered vaccines to individuals from all walks of life who were impacted by COVID-19 in various ways. While many individuals were eager to help end the pandemic with their vaccination, there were individuals who were uneasy about the vaccine due to the side effects seen in social media and heard through word of mouth. After listening to the reasons for their reluctance, I kindly worked to defuse their anxiety and clarify their questions. Through these discussions, they were much more on board to get vaccinated. These interactions served as a reminder for why I chose to pursue Medicine, and I hope to continue guiding patients towards better health outcomes and improved quality of life as a physician.”

-Kendrick Lim, OMS-II

“Volunteering at the City of Burleson Vaccination Clinic has been a very rewarding experience because I was able to serve the community and help distribute the vaccine that protects from a very deadly illness. As a future healthcare professional, preventative measures are an important aspect of public health and I am proud to be a part of this program as it continues to grow!”

-Melson Mesmin, OMS-II

The students have approached this effort with great enthusiasm and interest and have been a big help in vaccinating a large number of persons efficiently. We are so very appreciative of their willingness to join us on this adventure. We hope that there will be many more opportunities in the months to come for our area students to participate at the Burleson COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic and assist in our community’s effort to slow down the pandemic and instill hope.

Medical student Kendrick Lim vaccinating a patient.

Medical Student Ashley Broderick vaccinates apatient as Burleson Fire Chief K.T. Freeman looks on.

Medical students from the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (Salma Omar, OMS-I; Melson Mesmin, OMS-II; and Alexander Nguyen, OMS-II) help administer COVID-19 vaccines to the public.

Medical student Maria Nguyen vaccinating a patient.