Five health plans including Blue Plus, Health Partners, Medica, Metropolitan Health Plan/Hennepin Health, and UCare launched the Antidepressant Medication Management project in the spring of 2015. Interventions include working with providers and partners to support efforts to improve adherence to antidepressant medication, with a particular focus on reducing health disparities.

In 2016, the health plans combined the Antidepressant Medication Management activities with a depression project focused on diagnosis and treatment of depression in the senior/Medicare population.

Provider toolkit

Provider Toolkit. Resources for providers and care coordinators working with culturally diverse and senior/Medicare patients experiencing depression including best practices for depression care, mental health resources for providers and patients, cultural competency, and shared decision making. (15-page PDF)

Resources

Make It OK webinar. One in five adults experiences a mental health issue, but there is still a lot of stigma related to the disease. The Make It OK campaign focuses on reducing the stigma of mental health and encouraging people to support each other. In this webinar, learn the history of the Make It OK campaign, how one town implemented the campaign, and how you could also implement the program community-wide.

Upcoming webinars

No upcoming webinars at this time.

Previous webinars

What Behavioral Health Providers Need to Know About Clients from Rural Areas, and Why. November 9, 2017. Katherine (Kay) M. Slama, PhD, MSS, LP, discusses how rural culture may influence the ways that behavioral health services are viewed and used by people raised in rural communities. (107-minute webinar, *please note a technical issue in the last portion of the recording resulted in 10 minutes not being recorded), slides (19-page PDF)

Trauma in Communities of Color. September 27, 2017. Dr. Kate Uchechi Onyeneho discusses delivering quality mental health services in a culturally appropriate way and understanding the barriers and solutions in serving this population. Dr. Onyeneho is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Center for Africans Now in America, Inc. (CANA) Health Care Clinic and the founder and president of All Star Academy. Dr. Onyeneho has a doctorate in Educational Administration and Special Education. She currently serves as a member of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Onyeneho is also a Licensed Independent Social Worker and has a certificate in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is an expert in multicultural competency training. (67-minute webinar)

Gray Matters–Understanding Anxiety in Older Adults. July 20, 2017. Kay King of NAMI Minnesota talks about symptoms, risk factors, the different types, treatment, management, warning signs of suicide, recovery, and resources for anxiety in older adults. King is the Older Adults Program Coordinator and Community Educator at NAMI Minnesota (the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota). King is a family educator who teaches NAMI’s Family-to-Family 12-week education course and she is a Mental Health First Aid, Older Adult Mental Health First Aid, and Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor. King is a family member whose grandmother, mother, sister, and niece (four generations) lived/lives with a mental illness. (91-minute webinar), slides (25-page PDF).

Gray Matters–Depression in Older Adults. June 19, 2017. Kay King of NAMI Minnesota talks about risk factors, warning signs, stigma, treatment, recovery, and resources for depression in older adults. King is the Older Adults Program coordinator and community educator at NAMI Minnesota (the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota) and the former executive director of a retirement community in the Twin Cities that offers both independent and assisted living services. She also managed a home health care agency. King is a family member whose grandmother, mother, sister and niece (four generations) lived/lives with a mental illness. (91-minute webinar), slides (19-page PDF)

Depression in Older Adults: The Mental Health Continuum. March 9, 2017. Dr. John Brose, Ph.D., L.P. This workshop discusses the various types of depression including evidenced-based treatment to treat depression in older adults. Examples on how to engage older adults to discuss their mental and cognitive health. (121-minute webinar), slides (20-page PDF)

Providing Mental Health Services to Latinos. February 28, 2017. Presented by Carla Maldonado, MA, LMFT. This webinar discusses the delivery of mental health services to the Latino population; the focus on delivering services in a culturally appropriate way and better understanding the barriers and solutions to providing this population with quality mental health services. This is a webinar in the Shared Decision Making and Depression Treatment in Primary Care series. (61-minute webinar)

Behavioral Health Care for Refugees Webinar Series: Mental Health Issues of the Refugee Population–Working with Interpreters in Mental Health Settings. Session 4, December 19, 2016. This webinar focuses on working with interpreters as part of the clinical team and the therapeutic process of treating behavioral health issues in refugees. (62-minute webinar)

Resistance and Non-Compliance in Care for Refugees. Session 3, October 27, 2016. Dr. Georgi Kroupin discusses potential cultural reasons for non-adherence and resistance to treatment and how providers can move past these barriers when treating refugees. (61-minute webinar)

Behavioral Health Care for Refugees Series: Mental Health Issues of the Refugee Population–Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment. Session 2, July 25, 2016. This session looks at mental health issues in the refugee population. Georgi Kroupin, Ph.D., LMFT, MA, LP – HealthPartners Center for International Health, discusses screening, diagnosis, and treatment. (61-minute webinar)

Depression Care for Somali Americans: Barriers, Best Practices, and Cultural Humility. July 13, 2016. Like all cultural groups, Somali-Americans face their own unique barriers to the successful treatment of mental illness. Learning more about the specific cultural context of mental illness, as well as common causes and best practices for engaging this community in treatment may improve adherence to treatment and ultimately improve health outcomes. (51-minute webinar), slides (17-page PDF)

Behavioral Health Care for Refugees Webinar Series; Immigration: Surviving Trauma, Loss and Finding Hope. Session 1, May 18, 2016. This session of the webinar series looks at immigration in Minnesota—trauma, and loss experienced by refugees and how it affects individuals and families. It also explores ways of identifying and utilizing the strength and resiliency of refugees. (61-minute webinar), slides (29-page PDF)

Behavioral Health Care for Refugees: Barriers, Best Practices, and Cultural Humility. February 3, 2016. New arrivers to this country present an array of unique challenges which may include trauma, unique cultural values, and varying cultural views of western medicine and mental health. Understanding the refugee community’s perceptions of behavioral health issues can help improve interactions with this community. (45-page PDF)

Shared Decision Making and Depression Treatment in Primary Care. November 12, 2015. A recorded webinar for health care providers focusing on how to incorporate shared decision-making into primary care when working with patients who experience depression. (55-minute webinar), transcript (19-page Word doc)

Cultural Awareness in Mental Health Care. July 14, 2015. A recorded webinar for health care providers, nurses, public health, health educators, CHWs, social workers, therapists, and anyone who interacts with individuals from other cultures. (42-minute webinar), transcript (9-page PDF)

Health Plan Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs)

Minnesota health plans that offer publicly subsidized health care programs implement performance improvement projects (PIP) to help improve the health of public program members and to reduce disparities for low-income Minnesotans. The projects have covered a wide range of health topics identified as priorities for improvement, including preventive care, chronic illnesses management, and transitions in care.
Projects with resources currently available:

Contact information

For more information on how your organization and Stratis Health can work together, please contact Karla Weng, senior program manager, 952-853-8570, or Nicole Gackstetter, program manager, 952-853-8512.