Dr. Sarah Nosal, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians, discusses the importance of family physicians in regard to mental health; Amelia Poulin, ASTHO assistant director of emerging infectious disease...
Dr. Sarah Nosal, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians, discusses the importance of family physicians in regard to mental health; Amelia Poulin, ASTHO assistant director of emerging infectious disease, explains why a disease intervention specialist is so important; an ASTHO webinar today at 2 p.m. ET, explores how regional data ecosystems can power smarter public health decisions; and an ASTHO resource walks you through the best ways to integrate sustainability into your implementation of the Healthy Brain Initiative.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Web Page: Mental Health Awareness Month
American Academy of Family Physicians Web Page
ASTHO Webinar: INSPIRE – Readiness - Building a Data-Ready Ecosystem for Public Health Response
ASTHO Web Page: Integrating Sustainability Into Healthy Brain Initiative Implementation
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, May 22, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
SARAH NOSAL:
We really need to see increased training of mental health clinicians.
SILVERS:
Dr. Sarah Nosal is the president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. As we continue to recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Nosal says primary care providers routinely address behavioral health issues.
NOSAL:
And there's no way that a patient coming to see their family doctor will avoid seeing and interacting with behavioral health issues across a family gamut, one in five individuals in their own lifetime is likely to have a mental illness diagnosed.
SILVERS:
Nosal says that also means primary care offices are where a great deal of change could happen to address behavioral health more effectively.
NOSAL:
Policy changes that make opportunities available to train community members who speak the language with similar life and background experiences, and making the possibility of those collaborative care models in our family physician office, in primary care offices, our patients are going to reach out to us first to make those connections to mental health care.
SILVERS:
Family physicians are the first point of contact for many patients experiencing mental health struggles, so it should be a more streamlined process, according to Nosal.
NOSAL:
I'm often managing a lot of behavioral health and mental health first-line care. Patients can see me for depression, anxiety, for substance use disorder. Those are opportunities to create a collaboration that often the billing structures or ability to work collaboratively in the office is not in place in policy.
SILVERS:
Learn more about Mental Health Awareness Aonth and about the American Academy of Family Physicians. We have links in the show notes.
ASTHO recently released a brief on STI programs that have a disease intervention specialist, or DIS. ASTHO's Amelia Poulin explains.
AMELIA POULIN:
We have, in that brief, highlighted some key considerations, as well as policy recommendations for prioritizing cases and contacts. We've seen this become an issue because different infectious diseases can come up out at once, and it's important to know kind of where to allocate different resources, including staff.
SILVERS:
Poulin tells us that a DIS can be critical in the prevention and control of the spread of infectious disease.
POULIN:
The training and adaptability that they have really make them critical assets, not only for STI but during public health emergencies. So, COVID-19, they played a critical role; TB outbreaks, mpox, Ebola, the list goes on.
SILVERS:
To figure out how to best allocate a DIS during an outbreak, Poulin says there are multiple things to consider.
POULIN:
We recommend different factors that could include disease severity and transmissibility, risk of transmission of public health impact, resource capacity, epi data and trends and ethical considerations, but local context is kind of first and foremost to make sure the unique needs of their demographics are met.
SILVERS:
ASTHO published that brief earlier this month, and it's online now. Learn more by clicking the link in the show notes.
Also on deck today, make sure your jurisdiction is ready for whatever comes your way. O'Keyla Cooper has an ASTHO webinar just for you.
O'KEYLA COOPER:
Join ASTHO today at 2 p.m. Eastern Time for an INSPIRE: Readiness webinar exploring how regional data ecosystems can power smarter public health decisions. Hear from experts at the Utah Population Database and leading universities on using integrated multi-source data to improve planning and response. There's still time to register using the link in the show notes.
SILVERS:
Finally, Older Americans Month is the perfect time to dive into the Healthy Brain Initiative, and ASTHO has you covered. An ASTHO resource walks you through the best ways to integrate sustainability into your implementation of the Healthy Brain Initiative. The resource hub includes videos and additional resources to guide you every step of the way. Click the show notes to learn more.
That'll do it for today, we're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers, you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
