xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 2001
Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap (BTG), an educational initiative stimulated by the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, seeks to increase the understanding of psychiatric and chronic disease comorbidity in the context of culture. Given the stigma associated with mental illness, the lack of recognition of the impact of untreated mental illness on chronic disease outcomes, and the growing diversity of the U.S. population resulting in increasing cross-cultural encounters in the health care setting, health providers must recognize the importance of understanding psychiatric and chronic disease comorbidity in a cultural context. BTG seeks to maximize overall health outcomes by disseminating information about the connections between mental health and physical health, the clinical manifestations of comorbid psychiatric illness and chronic disease, and ethnocultural variations in health beliefs and practices, clinical presentation, and response. The target audiences for BTG are: health providers, including primary care providers, pharmacists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, and other specialists; legislators and policy makers; patients and consumers; community leaders; and the general public.
The current phase of BTG involves the development of curricula on diabetes and depression comorbidity and on hypertension and cardiovascular disease and depression comorbidity, each with a focus on culture. These curricula will be tailored for specific target audiences, converted to powerpoint slide presentations and delivered by a cadre of trained speakers. This speakers bureau will provide presentations in various settings from residency training programs, to grand rounds at community hospitals, to grass roots community venues in the Baltimore-Washington area as well as seven additional metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay area.
This initiative was launched in 1999 by a Baltimore group called the Coalition of Community Health Providers and Advocates (CCHPA). Over 1000 people have been introduced to BTG and several influential organizations and agencies have endorsed the concept. Among them are the AACP, the Office of the Surgeon General, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU), and the National Medical Association (NMA).
For more information about BTG, contact Annelle Primm at 410 955-2018 or email address, aprimm@jhmi.edu.
Annelle B. Primm, MD
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