Biopsychosocial Practice

BIopsychosocial Practice: Holistic Model of Healthcare


Integrated care offers a non-dual appreciation of the whole-person-in-context to help resolve life stressors and address issues in personal vulnerability and resiliency. The passage of California Proposition 63: The Mental Health Services Act (2005), encouraged a shift toward well-being and strength-based models to balance illness and deficit-based models in healthcare. Mental health education and training additionally shifted with Senate Bill 33 (2009) to emphasize culture, community, family, and consumer-centered care. The federal Affordable Care Act (2010) included behavioral health as an essential health benefit to emphasize a "whole health" system of integrated care.

A holistic model of care emphasizes a wide circle of resources and preventative services. Consumers are encouraged to access mental health services before small concerns become larger problems. For children and adolescents, emphasis has shifted from waiting to see if a problem develops to addressing prior concerns that potentially lead to later problems in development. For adults and seniors, emphasis has shifted from living with problems to understanding that development continues through the lifespan.

Scope of practice and clinical competencies in a holistic approach emphasize somatic, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors. Holistic interventions address issues in the unified context of personal meaning, experience, and goals. My undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate training and my experience in graduate teaching have emphasized a biopsychosocial model of holistic care in lifespan development. My scope of practice and clinical competencies integrate preventative, strength-based and problem-based interventions sensitive to life phase, cultural and personal values, interpersonal context, and resources.

When the mind rests serene in the oneness of things, dualism vanishes by itself. "
Seng Tsan

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