Panel Discussion: Future Directions & Trends in Making Healthcare Whole
Presentation Description:
Whole person health has been defined as "a person-centered, integrated approach to health care that focuses on health creation and well-being by incorporating patients’ goals into their health care." We can all agree that most healthcare systems are falling far short of successfully arriving at the delivery of this type of care. In our final conference session, a panel of healthcare experts will discuss trends and strategies showing promise in transforming healthcare systems toward whole-person health, including strategies to assess, scale, and spread the whole-person approach.
Panelists Bios:
Dr. U. Grant Baldwin, DBH, MSW
Dr. U. Grant Baldwin, DBH, is an accomplished professional with over 15 years of experience in management, program administration, government and state medical programs, organizational transformation and innovation, community support and engagement initiatives, and performance management. He is an expert in public health and behavioral health treatment delivery systems, including issues relating to mental illness, developmental disabilities, and substance use disorders. Dr. Baldwin has enforced, managed, and executed Federal, state, and organizational level policies, procedures, laws, regulations, and actions. He advises executive-level management in policy matters, including various administrative activities, consumer and advocacy initiatives, community engagement/public relations campaigns, stakeholder engagement, strategic management and planning, recruitment and staffing, equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion/special emphasis.
Currently, Dr. Baldwin is serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Imani Behavioral Health in Nashville/Clarksville, TN, where he is responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance of daily operating procedures, motivating and integrating excellence in interpersonal and leadership skills, promoting outstanding organizational and time management skills, taking the primary lead in expansion activities, and in-depth knowledge of company structure and stability. Dr. Baldwin is also an Adjunct Professor/Subject Matter Expert at Fisk University and Morehouse School of Medicine, where he teaches specific courses innovatively and develops course outlines curriculum, and instructional materials to improve the processes and courses offered to students. Additionally, Dr. Baldwin is the Director of the Doctor of Behavioral Health Program at Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Studies, where he is responsible for planning, organizing, and managing all of the activities related to academic operations.
Dr. Paul Mittman ND, EdD
Dr. Paul Mittman ND, EdD has served as Sonoran University of Health Sciences’ president since 1999. In addition to practicing naturopathic medicine for 25 years, his research in the late 1980s was among the first peer-reviewed published randomized controlled trials on medicinal plants. Throughout his career, Dr. Mitman served on numerous social-benefit and government boards. He currently chairs the Arizona Board for Private Postsecondary Education and serves on the Advisory Board of Arizona State University's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Inspired by Penn's Netter Center, he helped create and sustain community healthcare partnerships providing no-cost care in Maricopa County's underserved communities. Paul has been married to Laura for 36 years, is Arie and Cascade’s loving father, and is a competitive bicyclist.
Dr. Cara English, DBH
Cara English is the Chief Executive Officer of Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) and Founder of Terra’s Tribe, a maternal mental health advocacy organization in Phoenix, Arizona. Cara spearheaded a perinatal behavioral health integration project at Willow Birth Center from 2016 to 2020 that received international acclaim through the publication of outcomes in the International Journal of Integrated Care. Dr. English served as Vice-President of the Postpartum Support International - Arizona Chapter Founding Board of Directors and co-chaired the Education and Legislative Advocacy Committees. She currently serves on the Maternal Mortality Review Program and the Maternal Health Taskforce for the State of Arizona. She served as one of three Arizonan 2020 Mom Nonprofit Policy Fellows in 2021. For her work to establish Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, Cara was awarded the Psyche Award from the Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation in 2018 and is more recently the recipient of the 2022 Sierra Tucson Compassion Recognition for her work to improve perinatal mental health integration in Arizona.
Dr. Ronke Komolafe, DBH, MBA
Dr. Ronke Komolafe is an executive leader with over 15 years of healthcare experience creating business value through systemic programs, evaluation, strategic planning, market expansion, product development, and revenue generation. Dr. Ronke is the Board Chair and CEO of Integrated Physical & Behavioral Health Alliance, a business and market expansion Company that provides leadership and go-to-market strategies to healthcare and health IT Companies. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Integrated Health Magazine, a thought leadership magazine focusing on integrated health approaches to care delivery and digital health.
Dr. Komolafe is a member of the Forbes Business Council, the Vice Chair of the American Association for Doctors of Behavioral Health, the Vice President of HIMSS South Texas Chapter, and an Associate Professor at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is also an Advisory Council Member and Associate Professor at Cumming Graduate Institute of Behavioral Health Studies.
Dr. Komolafe has extensive experience in mental health IT, Medicaid, leadership, healthcare strategy, business development, integrated care, and regulatory affairs. Dr. Komolafe is known for her multi-dimensional perspective on integrated and mental health and her passion for health innovation and advancement.
Dr. Larry Ford, DBH
Dr. Larry Ford received his Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Science and Ethics from Mid-America Christian University in Moore, Oklahoma, and a Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Ford received his Master's in Counseling with an emphasis in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma and his Doctorate in Behavioral Health from Arizona State University.
Inspired by the volumes of studies Dr. Ford completed on how infinitely the psyche affects the body, Dr. Ford founded Hands to Guide You as he fulfilled his doctoral studies in November 2011.
Dr. Ford centers his practice on the certainty that there is no physical health without mental health, and correspondingly, Dr. Ford has advanced Hands to Guide You as a preeminent leader in Integrated Care and Population Health. Hands to Guide You, with Dr. Ford at the helm, enjoys distinction for engendering unparalleled patient rehabilitation and recovery rates and expansive patient health literacy.
Providing and teaching the necessity of integrated care and the entrenched correlation between emotional well-being and physical health have become Dr. Ford’s trademarks. Hence, Dr. Ford’s esteemed reputation in integrating behavioral and medical health has yielded him requests from all over the nation to serve as a keynote speaker, imparting erudition, expertise, and patient success stories. Dr. Ford has spoken and continues to receive invitations to lecture before hundreds of fellow clinicians and additional medical and behavioral health professionals.
Dr. Ford enjoys eminent respect from both his patients and contemporaries as an authority on decreasing high health care costs in the state of Oklahoma, which therein has significantly reduced health insurance coverage denial due in significant part to Dr. Ford’s accomplishments in holistic treatments. Dr. Ford’s integrated treatment has also decreased hospital readmission by 30% in southwest Oklahoma City alone.
It is for Dr. Ford’s principal leadership over the compassionate interdisciplinary treatment team at Hands to Guide You that epitomizes skilled behavioral health services in Oklahoma and numerous other notable achievements that the Cummings Graduate Institute honored Dr. Ford with the prestigious Biodyne Life Change Award in October 2016.
