Efforts to better integrate behavioral and physical medical care already have led to some major systemic reforms in New Jersey, according to a March 28 report published in NJ Spotlight.

This is especially relevant for global health, which involves many disciplines within and beyond the health sciences and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration. Global health also emphasizes efforts to improve health and achieve equity in health, requiring attention to the physical, mental, and social well-being of all people worldwide.

Portrait of adult maleIn this report, Frank Ghinassi, a core faculty member of Rutgers Global Health Institute and the president and CEO of Rutgers’ University Behavioral Health Care, discusses a Rutgers initiative that seeks to create a new education model and curriculum to guide the next generation of providers in how to care for the patient as a whole. Behavioral health experts at Rutgers are using funding from the Nicholson Foundation, which has prioritized integration efforts to help vulnerable populations, to build a future workforce more attuned to this type of collaboration.

“If we’re taught early on that our job is not only the knee, but also the mood and life circumstance of the person that owns that knee, the likelihood of success is much higher,” Ghinassi said.

Read the full report in NJ Spotlight.