Exploring the Integration of Physical and Mental Health: A Conversation with Lana Seiler

Why isn't integrating physical and mental health more common in our healthcare system? Could communication be the missing link? Join me as I sit down with Lana Seiler, Clinical Manager at All Points North, to ponder these questions and more. Lana passionately challenges the status quo, advocating for a unified approach that sees a human being as a compilation of systems rather than separate entities. In this enlightening conversation, we explore the overlooked connections between mind and body, the role of fitness in holistic care, and alternative treatments that warrant more attention.

We also venture into behavioral health, discussing the importance of understanding and addressing the underlying causes of behaviors, particularly those linked to trauma. Lana shares her belief that there's no magic pill in the healthcare industry and calls for more communication and centralized information among healthcare providers. We wrap things up by diving into the need to break down old silos in healthcare and create a more unified, comprehensive approach to patient care. So, tune in, open your mind, and prepare to see healthcare in a whole new light.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Hatching Creativity . This isn't just another behavioral health podcast . This is the place where thought leaders converge to talk about real-life challenges , breakthroughs and pivotal aha moments . Thanks for tuning in to Hatching Creativity . In today's episode , I speak with Lana Seiler . She's a clinical manager at All Points North in Colorado , as well as the host of the Therapy Unboxed podcast . Today we talk about the connection between mind and body and the importance of holistic care in behavioral health . Don't forget if you like what you hear , please like , subscribe and tell all your friends about the Hatching Creativity podcast . Can you tell a little bit about what you do relating to holistic treatment ?

Speaker 2 0:45

Absolutely . It's a topic that I'm actually really passionate about . I think medicine as a whole in some ways is siloed . We're looking at systems in the body and systems in the mind and systems in our soul and we're sort of piecing it out right Like cardiology , and I think it's important to have specialists . Of course , that's why we're innovative and we're wonderful at doing what we do , and I think it's important to not lose sight of a human being as a compilation of systems that work together .

Speaker 1 1:18

I think it's so funny . You say that my wife and I we talk about this all the time and Renee , you're listening . It's never just one thing .

Speaker 2 1:25

Yes , it's never .

Speaker 1 1:28

Just one thing , and that's life in general anyway , right , and everybody's looking for just like . If I could just do this , everything would be great .

Speaker 2 1:37

Yeah .

Speaker 1 1:39

So , yeah , I think that's a very important approach , as well as the integration of physical and mental health . Right Like why is it not a thing and why is it not more common ?

Speaker 2 1:52

Right . So the questions I'm also asking myself and asking in our industry . I think it's headed in a good direction . I really do . I believe that I'm optimistic .

Speaker 2 2:03

I'm doing a presentation later today and one of the slides says there's no magic pill in a quote . And then it says all of us , all of us in this industry , know that there's no one magic pill for anything , and we all say that frequently to our patients , to their families , and so one of the ways that it all points north , that we're sort of like bringing in holistic care , is not only is it like primary mental health , primary substance use , so we're looking at all these different elements that work together for patients . We also have 9x , which is fitness right . So bringing in like a very tailored specific fitness programs to our patients to get them moving , get the blood flowing . You know we've got yoga . I'm going to talk also in my talk about alternative treatments and alternative medicines that we aren't paying enough attention to that work really well , that we see , anecdotally , there isn't enough research being done to kind of bring it into more of the main strain .

Speaker 1 2:56

If you were given a magic wand right , how would you change it ? How would it look to you ? More communication .

Speaker 2 3:05

How ? So , if I had a magic wand , we would have centralized information about patients that all the care providers have access to , that's HIPAA compliant , obviously , so that if my patient goes to the ER right , there's enough communication that they would know not to give that person , maybe narcotics if they don't absolutely need to , because they came from us , right , or that we're in their history right , and so it's tricky because we don't wanna make sure patients have control over their healthcare information . It's very important , and if I had a magic wand , there would be much more communication across all different spectrums of health and care , including medicine , including emergency medicine , absolutely , and it would go both ways . I mean , nothing would make me happier than to have one of my patients primary care physicians call me and say what are you doing with this person ? Where are they in their therapy ?

Speaker 1 4:00

Right , it's so important and you know the communication , especially when somebody's going into treatment during admissions . Right , they're in crisis . They're not thinking about what am I allergic to , what contraindications are gonna happen from any other medicine that I'm on , right , what happens we don't know and we're treating people with like part of the story and we're expected for them to get better .

Speaker 2 4:28

Not to mention . So this is a great example . The ACE study adverse childhood experiences study originated out of an obesity clinic right , and so that right there puts together these pieces . People are coming to work on their weight issues and what they found was that there's so much of what was feeding into this weight problem was actually childhood trauma , and it doesn't help to just do like bariatric surgery or to get them on like a fitness plan and a diet plan , because long term , they need to work on the underlying causes for these behaviors and again , I think we're moving in the right direction . I think other people are talking about this . We just need to talk about it more and we need to really like kind of break down these old silos that have been built up over years , right , when there's this separation .

Speaker 1 5:22

It's . I just had somebody on just the last one . We were talking about what came first the trauma or the coping mechanism , right ? Removing the coping mechanism is it going to solve any ? It will solve you from maybe relying on that coping mechanism , right , but what ends up happening is they'll find another coping mechanism , right . So it's ? Yeah , I agree , and I think the communication can be really important . Physicians are not always trained in drug seeking behavior or they are going to be able to recognize when somebody really maybe they're not seeing the whole picture . And physicians are not trained in behavioral health either .

Speaker 2 6:08

Right , and I know they're busy and I know that's not their scope , and so the more we can help each other . So I work on a treatment team right now . I'm fortunate , you know I work in residential level of care and you know I have the luxury and the freedom of just reaching out to the doctors and psychiatrists that we work with and so we see it work well in these types of settings and there has to be a way to scale that to help it work well on a bigger scale .

Speaker 1 6:30

Yeah , it comes also to standardization .

Speaker 2 6:34

Yeah .

Speaker 1 6:35

And I get on that soapbox . I'm not going to right now , but there needs to be standardization around expectations , absolutely , and you know , these are all things that I think there needs to be and this is something they , tap , should be doing , and maybe they are , and I'm not aware of it , but you know they really have a lot of ears .

Speaker 2 6:56

Yeah .

Speaker 1 6:57

And a lot of people that they can get in front of and talk about standardization of anything from . We look at , you can take a commission who has different requirements , charting requirements . You're in Colorado , colorado , utah . Yeah , different charting requirements in different states . So they're , the demands are needing to be addressed , you know , as part of it , yeah , so , look , we can go down this rabbit hole and I think that we should definitely reconnect on this . Yeah , because there's just so much to talk about here . Yeah , thanks for tuning in to Hatchin' Creativity . We appreciate your support . Please don't forget to like and subscribe until all your friends about the show and remember it's never just about one thing .