NEW EMPLOYEE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINIC MAKES ACCESSIBILITY REAL The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on front-line health care workers, and the Houston Methodist Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health responded last fall by opening an innovative behavioral health clinic for all hospital employees and their families. A major gift from the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation at year end could make it a game changer. “Our front-line physicians, employees and their families have been struggling,” says Dr. Benjamin Weinstein, the C. James and Carole Walter Looke Presidential Distinguished Centennial Clinical Academic Scholar in Behavioral Health and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. “We realized they lacked easy access to behavioral health care that has been sorely needed these past two years.
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Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation
RESTORING We wanted to do a better job of caring for them.” Many mental health professionals do not take insurance, with the wait to see someone months long. These factors increase the likelihood of someone having a traumatic episode, according to Dr. Weinstein. “If you are having a mental health crisis, you need help now — not in three months,” he says. Dr. Weinstein and vice chair Dr. Alok Madan, the John S. Dunn Foundation Distinguished Centennial Clinical Academic Scholar in Behavioral Health, are leading the clinic that helps
employees and their families overcome the extreme challenges of an enduring health care crisis. The Chao Foundation’s gift will help support the clinic’s viability and growth. “We’re building an employee mental health infrastructure from scratch and trying to have it be evidence-based and best in class,” says Dr. Madan. “We have a huge, diverse group of behavioral health colleagues who say they find this work some of the most meaningful work they do.” Dr. Susan Miller, the John S. Dunn, Sr. Research Chair in General
