Services At Trilogy: Integrated Healthcare ServicesPrimary healthcare is a necessary component of all our lives and is especially critical for Trilogy clients as they engage in their personal recovery. Forty-percent of the people who apply for services at Trilogy—at the time of application—do not have a primary care physician and have difficulty accessing quality medical care due to symptoms associated with their illness, the poverty often linked with debilitating mental illness, homelessness, stigma, or to obstacles endemic to the healthcare and public entitlement systems. Trilogy’s Integrated Healthcare Program (IHP) was established in 2007 to help address this need and incorporates a holistic, multidisciplinary team approach to treatment to foster improvement in the overall quality of life for the people we serve. Funded by the Lloyd Fry Foundation and the Field Foundation, Trilogy expanded the scope of our Integrated Healthcare Program by hiring a Medical Services Coordinator, Alice Geis, MS, APN, in November 2008. Ms. Geis works with our Medical Director, Sara Gotheridge, MD, to identify and monitor our clients’ unique medical needs and coordinate referrals for medical care. Partnering with Rush allows us to take the next step toward the integration of medical screening, prevention, early intervention, and primary healthcare treatment with mental health services on-site as well as offering more community health outreach services to individuals who lack insight into their illness or have not responded well to traditional outpatient mental health services. We have also partnered with the Rush University College of Nursing to create a dynamic nursing internship program. This program increases access to affordable healthcare for our underserved client population by leveraging the enthusiasm and resources of the Rush nursing students. http://www.fryfoundation.org/
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