For many patients receiving Medicaid, working with a licensed therapist can help them cope with any mental health challenges they’re facing and develop skills to move forward. After all, healthcare doesn’t stop at the doctor’s office – dealing with recent life changes, stress management, relationships, and other stressors are all key parts of overall health.
This is exactly what Mironda Womack, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), sees in her work at Waymark. In this interview, Mironda shares the particulars of her role and shares how she works alongside other experts on Waymark's care team — community health workers (CHWs), clinical pharmacists, and care coordinators — to improve patient outcomes.
What does a day in the life of a therapist look like, and how do you support and enable patients and primary care providers (PCPs) in your role?
As a therapist, I spend my days helping patients address the issues and challenges that life presents them, including those that stem from their thoughts, emotions, behavioral health concerns, and/or life situations and circumstances outside of the patient’s control that nevertheless have the potential to negatively impact a person’s mental health and well-being.
I support and empower my patients and their primary care providers by actively finding ways to assist patients in making healthy lifestyle changes from a therapeutic perspective. This includes helping them schedule and keep and scheduling PCP appointments (versus going to the emergency room for non-emergent care needs), or encouraging them to go to the emergency room during times when they are experiencing a psychosis, or feelings of suicidal and/or homicidal ideation. I also support both PCPs and patients by highlighting to patients the importance of adhering to prescribed and/or recommended medication and treatment regimens, and the benefits of that adherence to their mental well-being.
Why is it important for community-based teams to include therapists?
Humans are very complex beings, and although we all may not have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, we all share the experience of life. Based on those lived experiences, our thought processes, behaviors, interpretations – as well as how we view ourselves, the world, and others – are all developed and influenced by that experience and dictates how we show up and be present in the world. As such, I believe therapists play an integral role in contributing to the treatment team, because the mind (meaning both mental health and mental wellbeing) is just as important as physical health and well-being.
How do you work alongside other roles, like community health workers (CHWs), care coordinators and pharmacists?
I collaborate with, and connect patients to, the pharmacy team whenever patients have questions or concerns about a medication, their prescribed dosage, potential side effects, and/or problems with gaining access to prescribed and/or over-the counter medications or medical equipment. I also consult with the pharmacy team whenever I have questions about a patient's medication or their side effects, which is particularly valuable when a medication has side effects that could mimic mental health symptoms or disorders.
There’s a lot of nuance to how I can and have partnered with CHWs and care coordinators in the past. I believe all humans require the same basic needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, and connection) and therapists, CHWs and care coordinators have the opportunity to collaborate for the best opportunity to have an impact on those we serve. If those basic needs aren’t met, there will always be roadblocks in place preventing patients from experiencing a better quality of life, and partnering with CHWs and care coordinators allows me to holistically serve my patients.
What brought you to Waymark?
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and self-proclaimed humanitarian, I enjoy finding ways to serve others that prioritize treating every human being with honor, dignity, and respect. Waymark’s mission and vision statements align strongly with my core values, and I am so humbled to be a member of a company that is such a change agent within the healthcare system.
Can you share an example of how you recently helped a patient in the community?
As a therapist I believe my greatest example can be seen in how I continuously seek ways to help our patients develop a greater awareness of their emotions, and how those emotions influence how they show-up and present in their everyday lives. One patient that comes to mind is one who struggled to overcome her symptoms of social anxiety as it connected to her experience of childhood bullying. After gaining a greater understanding of the correlation between how that childhood emotional trauma transcended into their current adulthood, this patient – with the help of some cognitive restructuring tools – was able to attend an event on their own, as well as sit at a table with strangers and carry on a conversation without experiencing a fear of being judged, and without feeling physical stress symptoms like rapid heart palpitations or the sensation of losing consciousness.
This therapeutic work wouldn’t have been possible without the partnership and support of the patient’s CHW. She worked with the CHW to secure a stable job and benefits, and filling out those applications and accessing those resources helped the patient work through her social anxiety symptoms while also giving her the confidence to advocate for herself with case managers and through benefits programs. Her CHW had a significant impact on her ability to feel more confident and empowered, and in turn supported me in helping the patient practice what she was working on in therapy.
This is just one of many examples I can think of where the partnership between the entire Waymark care team has gone above and beyond in supporting the whole patient. Seeing her transformation is such a reminder to me of the power community-based and collaborative care can have on a patient’s mental and physical health, as well as their ability to blossom when their whole-person health is being considered and cared for.
