About this Presentation
In partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Montana, NAMI New Mexico, and NAMI Westside Los Angeles, and funded by a $2.4M Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award, we conducted focus groups with individuals with bipolar disorder as well as family members around the central theme, “What do you wish you had known in advance or over the course of treatment for bipolar disorder?”. The objective of this study was to engage with our patient partners to understand the challenges faced in managing bipolar disorder, to elicit questions of concern to patients, and to propose models that highlight root causes where limited resources can be deployed to achieve the highest impact. Our NAMI patient partners directly participated in building models with the focus group data. We used the Theory of Constraints change matrix, evaporating cloud, communication current reality tree and future reality tree tools to both diagnose systemic challenges and pose directions towards solutions.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Patients with bipolar disorder often face a difficult choice between seeking pharmacotherapy and experiencing its side effects, or avoiding pharmacotherapy and continuing to experience the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Many patients seek alternative treatments, but these are often not sufficient to alleviate their symptoms.
The mental health system often fails to meet the needs of patients, with issues such as short provider visits, lack of support, and limited access to services.
Instructor(s)
Christophe Lambert
Christophe G. Lambert, Ph.D., is a Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of Translational Informatics at the University of New Mexico. He is also the founder, past CEO and current Chairman of Golden Helix, a Bozeman-based bioinformatics company. Throughout his career, he has applied systems thinking to the challenging problems affecting life sciences and healthcare research, with numerous articles and presentations diagnosing systemic problems and prescribing the change management required for improvement. As a lifetime TOCICO member, certified in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Fundamentals (2004) and Thinking Processes (2006), he applied TOC within his own company for a decade, and currently applies it to problems in mental and organizational health. Originally from Canada, Dr. Lambert received his bachelor’s degree from Montana State University, and a PhD in computer science from Duke University.