{"id":6542311,"date":"2019-11-07T12:41:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T12:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.net\/wordpress\/?p=6542311"},"modified":"2019-11-07T12:41:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T12:41:59","slug":"aua-grad-on-access-to-healthcare-for-mental-health-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/?p=6542311","title":{"rendered":"AUA Grad on Access to Healthcare for Mental Health Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jasmine Sawhne is driven by her desire to help the most vulnerable populations in her community. An AUA Class of 2013 graduate, Dr. Sawhne completed her residency at Columbia University\u2019s New York-Presbyterian Medical Center and Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, treating patients who suffered from chronic mental health issues. After residency, she accepted a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The fellowship centered around working with community-based populations\u2014including many people who desperately need medical care but don\u2019t receive it. \u201cI was drawn to take this fellowship because I was interested in helping the populations that get overlooked,\u201d said Dr. Sawhne. \u201cThe people who truly need help often can\u2019t access it. I wanted to help people who couldn\u2019t get other resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During her fellowship, Dr. Sawhne learned about treating patients who struggle with challenges such as homelessness, addiction, and isolation, and require significantly more attention. The program taught her how to use systems-based practice management\u2014the concept that doctors must learn to work effectively within a complex set of overlapping healthcare systems. She learned to determine which resources she could rely on from the federal government or the state to provide the best possible care.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sawhne\u2019s fellowship led to a full-time job at Horizon House, an organization that serves the homeless and people with mental and behavioral health needs and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The community-based work she is doing with Horizon House is significant, as there is a substantial national shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health providers, especially in rural regions, urban neighborhoods, and community health centers, according to the AAMC.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sawhne also works with the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, which uses evidence-based practices in behavioral healthcare to help people with severe mental illness. \u201cMany people have been hospitalized and can\u2019t function in the community,\u201d said Dr. Sawhne. \u201cThey need a lot of extra support and very personalized care.\u201d Dr. Sawhne also works on a team dedicated to early intervention for people who are experiencing psychosis\u2014losing touch with their sense of reality\u2014for the first time. The team\u2019s goal is to intervene prior to them going into a hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith psychosis, most of the time we think of major disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but actually psychosis is just defined as when a patient experiences a disconnection from their version of reality. This usually shows symptoms between the ages of 15 and 25,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people who have symptoms don\u2019t get care until a year or two later. Getting them care earlier reduces the number of days they spend in the hospital, and then they can re-engage back into college or work. I enjoy working with the younger population because I can intervene early and change their trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Dr. Sawhne\u2019s work in the mental health field revolves around battling cultural stigmas. Many people resist seeking help because of the stigmas that exist around mental illness. And people often mistakenly associate mental illness with violence, when in reality, less than 1% of people with mental illness are violent.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the work is educating people about mental illness,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a weakness, it doesn\u2019t define you as a person, and you can still be highly functional despite having this condition. The goal is not to label the patient with a diagnosis. The goal is to manage the symptoms, so that patients can have a long-term plan and an achievable goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Jasmine Sawhne is driven by her desire to help the most vulnerable populations in her community. An AUA Class of 2013 graduate, Dr. Sawhne completed her residency at Columbia University\u2019s New York-Presbyterian Medical Center and Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, treating patients who suffered from chronic mental health issues. After residency, she accepted a fellowship at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6542313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6542311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aua-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6542311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6542313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6542311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6542311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaua.auamed.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6542311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}