MCS hosts workshops to promote comprehensive mental health management
MCS recently brought together health experts in a series of symposiums to expose the negative impact of mental health problems on the physical health of patients with chronic conditions.
Other topics covered during the “MCS Conexión de Salud” symposiums held Oct. 18 and Nov. 2 discussed the appropriate pharmacotherapy treatment for a patient with a physical and mental illness, the importance of adherence to this treatment, and the codification of mental health conditions according to ICD-10, among others.
The series of symposiums: “Comprehensive Management of Mental Health and Chronic Conditions: Challenges and Opportunities,” marks the beginning of the educational activities that form part of the newly created “MCS Conexión de Salud” program.
Through this program, MCS is committed to knowledge and interdisciplinary collaboration to maintain a high level of quality and effectiveness in providing healthcare services within its provider network, to further improve the clinical care of its insureds, the company said.
Inés Hernández-Roses, chief medical officer at MCS, stressed that through the symposium series MCS aims to promote an exchange of knowledge that fosters collaborative learning among the medical class in order to benefit insureds.
“To conduct these symposiums, we have the collaboration of the Department of Health and our business partner First Healthcare. We intend to continue working as a team with our providers and will continue to focus on raising the level of effectiveness in our clinical practices,” she said.
Jessica Irizarry, consultant in chronic disease epidemiology at the Department of Health, said 18.2 percent of Puerto Rico’s adult population reported having some form of depression, which is one of the most common chronic conditions in this population.
“Depression is a serious mental illness that interferes with daily activities. Those with depression tend not to take care of their conditions, and the problem becomes more serious when we see that the depression prevalence percentage tends to double in adults with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, cancer, arthritis and obesity,” she said, adding 75.8 percent of adults with diabetes and undiagnosed depression do not receive adequate care for their diabetes condition.
The symposium has been approved by the Central Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies for 5.5 hours of contact as Continuing Medical Education credits. Healthcare service providers who are interested in participating in future activities may register and leave their contact information to receive information on future events.
