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Pueblo, CO Has a Holistic Approach to Healthcare

Health Solutions offers a comprehensive list of services that is incorporated into its overall approach to healthcare

By Susan Chappell on November 3, 2017

Wayne Armstrong

The idea of integrated healthcare, or treating the whole person, is the model Health Solutions adopted when it rebranded in 2015. Dawn Yengich, director of marketing and public relations, says it’s a holistic approach that makes perfect sense based on the idea that, in many cases, physical and mental health go hand in hand.

“People with diabetes, for example, often experience depression along with it,” Yengich says. “They may have thought that they were just tired or unable to live a full life because they have this illness. But when they come to Health Solutions for their diabetes, we also ask them how they are doing emotionally.

Your thoughts and your emotions are interwoven with your physical body and total health.”

The company’s comprehensive list of services reflects its integrated healthcare model. Healthcare is multifaceted; a combination of primary medical care, behavioral healthcare, wellness education and even career services combine to allow the realization of one’s best life.

Crisis management, pharmaceuticals and peer support came together for Josh Helton when he suffered a breakdown in 2015 and knew he needed to find help.

“I drove to Health Solutions because I knew they had a place for adult outpatient services,” he says.

“I sat in my car crying for about 30 minutes because I didn’t know which door to go into, but I went in and talked to support staff. Then somebody came out and led me over to crisis services because

I wasn’t even capable of speech at that time.”

Today, Helton, 37, works at Health Solutions as a certified peer support specialist. He became interested in being a peer specialist because of his own experience.

“The peer that I met the first day that I came to Health Solutions as a client is really the reason I am working there now,” Helton explains. “If it weren’t for the peer that I talked to, in all honesty, I wouldn’t be alive right now.

Peer support can make that big of an impact.”

Helton has now come full circle and is working with clients who are suffering just as he was a few years ago. He says his job at Health Solutions has helped him recover just as much as therapy or medication.

“I can talk to somebody and be on the same page that they are,” says Helton, who has been working at Health Solutions since 2016.

“I know entirely too well what depression and anxiety can do to somebody. Just being able to say,

‘I know what you’re going through and it’s real. It is just as real to you as anything else, and it’s temporary – you’ll get through this.’ ”

Helton echoes the idea of how important it is to take a complete approach to patient care. He says it was comforting to know that all of his providers were working together.

“I didn’t have to worry about my records going from this place to that place, and people not being able to talk to one another,” Helton recalls.

“I knew that all of my needs were being taken care of that way. Having my peer specialist, case manager and my clinician all be able to have a conversation  about my situation was very helpful.”

Dr. Dorothy Perry, CEO of Health Solutions, says that kind of integrated care is what a healthcare home – or medical home – is all about.

“A healthcare home is a team based model of care that provides comprehensive, whole-person healthcare,” Perry explains.

“Our objective is to obtain the highest healthcare outcomes by treating the whole person, not treating the body separate from the mind.

That doesn’t mean that all persons seeking medical services are also receiving behavioral health services, but both are available in one location for the convenience of the patient and their family, if needed.”

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