Behavior Change in Primary Care: Interventions

Abstract

To attain better outcomes at the population level, clinicians need a powerful syringe and powerful medicines for behavior change. The Primary Care Behavioral Health model identifies key strategies for creating a strong syringe for deployment, and Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy provides a powerful medicine for behavior change. Readers will meet Amy, Bob, and Mary again (introduced in Chapter 4) and read clinician-patient dialogues that illustrate how clinicians can encourage helpful behavior changes during and after a clinic visit - on the streets and in the community where the patient lives! during and after a clinic visit. The FACT Pillars Intervention Guide, a complement to the FACT Pillars Assessment Tool introduced in Chapter 4, suggests moment-to-moment strategies for facilitating gains in patient psychological flexibility during clinic visits. All members of an inter-professional team can provide continuous support for patient efforts to make and sustain behavior changes by using a common intervention metaphor, such as the Bull’s-Eye Plan or Life Path Plan, when providing care. This chapter suggests ways to “work smart” by thinking beyond clinic visits and beyond the one-to-one contact. The chapter also offers a Contextual Behavioral Scientist Check-In for readers to use as a self-assessment tool in on-going efforts to gain skills for promoting behavior change in primary care. This is the last chapter of the book and it concludes with the usual checklist of recommended strategies for readers to use in setting priorities and, of course, Tips for Leaders.