The We Stand Together “WST” Foundation for Mental Health is a nonprofit focused on supporting holistic solutions to improve mental health outcomes for patients and their families. This includes providing funding for innovative research or initiatives that would expand access to and raise awareness of mental health resources amongst various patient populations.

The WST Foundation is excited to be partnering with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory School of Medicine to support the work of the Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH) Program. Under the leadership of Dr. Brandon Kitay, IBH seeks to fulfill the growing mental health needs of Emory patients by implementing scalable, and evidence-based solutions where the majority of patients are seen: in Primary Care. Providing mental health treatment directly in the Primary Care setting affords earlier identification of mental health concerns, more timely initiation of coordinated treatment plans, and efficient escalation to higher levels of care when indicated. This provides the opportunity to address both mental and physical health outcomes that are dependent upon each other but often managed separately. 

IBH is working to achieve these goals by formally creating collocated teams of primary care providers and mental health specialists within Primary Care clinics (e.g., “Collaborative Care”) as well as leveraging cutting edge information technology to engage patients in treatment beyond the boundaries of the traditional office visit.

This approach coupled with the broad geographic distribution of Emory Primary Care clinics lays the foundation for expanding mental health resources outside of the metro-Atlanta area and into communities without local access to psychiatrists or mental health specialists. Please join the WST Foundation in supporting this early, groundbreaking effort to bring mental health treatment into Primary Care throughout the state of Georgia by donating to the Emory Integrated Behavioral Health Program.