Bridging Gaps in Care: Jose Matthew’s Commitment to for Behavioral Health Equity and Disruption
October 8, 2024
As a Hispanic clinician of Puerto Rican descent from the South Bronx, Jose Matthews draws from a deep commitment to advocacy, diversity, equity, and inclusion, approaching every interaction with a trauma-informed, empathetic, and compassionate lens. Over the past decade, he has gained extensive experience working in a variety of community mental health settings, including Inpatient Psychiatric Milieu, Crisis Emergency Services, Disaster Emergency Response (DERT), Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), dual diagnosis (BH/SUD) treatment, and clinical training. Currently serving as a supervisor of clinical programs, Jose proudly embraces the role of a “disrupter” in the field. Privileged to be part of a multidisciplinary team of healthcare trailblazers, Jose views the therapeutic journey as a partnership and always begins by asking patients the powerful question: “How can I help?” His daily goal is to make a meaningful impact on those they serve, fostering connection, support, and healing. This interview provides a snapshot of Jose’s experience in the DBH program, vision for care delivery, and dedication to the behavioral health field.
How do you see the DBH program impacting your skills, knowledge, and career trajectory?
The DBH program’s mission, purpose, and objective say it all: We strive for intentional care outcome improvement practices that exemplify whole person-centered integrated healthcare advanced competency. The program of study drives insights and awareness of the ever-changing patient population and multidisciplinary practice environments to change how the world experiences healthcare. This is further reinforced by the pillars of medical literacy, integrated behavioral health intervention, and entrepreneurship skills and expertise. Development growth is needed to prepare the aspiring DBH for the future of the shifting healthcare marketplace through international networking in a growing community of disruptive innovators and an evolving movement toward systemic healthcare change. I feel that I will be positioned alongside a fellowship of like-minded professionals trying to improve the quality of healthcare service delivery value and outcome sustainability. In the clinical world, it is commonplace to see many credentialing letters after a practitioner’s name. Still, the letters before your name will give you a voice of practice, expertise, and excellence and invite you to those influential system spaces instead of remaining an echo for change.
What innovative approaches or strategies have the potential to revolutionize the behavioral health landscape?
As a DBH student, I have come to acknowledge, understand, and embrace the concepts of integration of whole-person treatment, trauma-informed practice, awareness of the SDOH, cultural competency, sensitivity, and humility. I strive for advanced comprehension of the Biodyne assessment and evaluation model, which reinforces refocused psychotherapy informed by pillars of medical literacy, neuropathophysiology, and advanced psychopharmacology grounded in the quadruple aim of healthcare improvement. As I continue to matriculate my DBH studies, I can’t help but become increasingly curious and fascinated by the knowledge and expertise shared by those in my cohort. So, for my thoughts on innovation, the possibilities are endless. My world has opened up to advanced areas of public health, disease management, preventative medicine, healthcare quality improvement, and healthcare equity. We humorously refer to ourselves as disruptors in the DBH program and proudly embrace this mindset as a clinical practitioner in a rural region of the eastern plains of Colorado. I feel that it is my future endeavor to bridge the healthcare divide in siloed practices, advance the mobility of integrative healthcare service delivery, and foster community partnerships in what is considered a healthcare desert.
Looking forward in your DBH journey, what specific insights or skills do you hope to gain?
Looking ahead in my academic and professional endeavors, I hope to advance in healthcare quality improvement dynamics, psychotherapeutic combined modality, and healthcare analytics skill sets to build on a developing healthcare leadership role throughout my career. With this in mind, my professional horizons continue to broaden as I advance in my studies and continue to be challenged by my mentors, teachers, and coaches who support and empower my academic excellence.
What are your future career goals, and how do you envision the DBH program contributing to your success?
My aspirations include redefining the patient health home model of integrated care by one day founding my clinic and extending in-clinic care to my community through mobile service delivery. My current studies have allowed me to develop several course assignments that speak to these goals and objectives of clinical pathways, program and proposal, and research data collection, eventually resulting in a culminating project to solidify my purposeful and intentional efforts. The DBH program provides me with a coordinated and inspired sense of direction in pursuing career excellence.
How do you view the role of leadership in advancing behavioral health outcomes, and how do you see the DBH program preparing you for leadership positions in the healthcare sector?
I believe that leadership is a consequence of competency, transparency, humility, lifelong learning, and a responsibility of service to others in your charge. The DBH program builds on the foundations of leadership principles, advanced competency, specialty practice, and clinical expertise as fundamental driving factors of growth and development.
Jose is advancing through the Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) program with a growing dedication to reshaping integrated behavioral healthcare delivery and outcomes. With a foundation built on years of experience in community mental health settings, he remains committed to advocacy, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of his work. Through the DBH program, Jose is honing the skills and knowledge needed to disrupt traditional healthcare models and advocate for patient-centered, whole-person care. Looking ahead, his goal is to drive meaningful change in underserved communities, bridging gaps in access and nurturing collaborative, innovative care solutions. His journey exemplifies the powerful combination of expertise, compassion, and leadership, positioning him to leave a lasting impact on the behavioral health landscape for years to come.
José Mathew Contributes to Upcoming Book: Integrated Behavioral Health: Applying the Biodyne Mindset in Healthcare
Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) is proud to announce the upcoming release of the groundbreaking new book, Integrated Behavioral Health: Applying the Biodyne Mindset in Healthcare, set for publication in January 2026. This new book builds on the foundation laid by Dr. Nicholas A. Cummings and Dr. Janet Cummings, renowned psychologists and co-founders of both the Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) degree program and CGI, who previously introduced the influential Biodyne Model in their seminal work Refocused Psychotherapy as the First Line Intervention in Behavioral Health.
