Winter Issue of Empowerment Magazine

1. Beyond diabetes there are psychiatric aspects of stroke, pain,
substance abuse (particularly nicotine), asthma, heart disease,
reproductive health, gastrointestinal illness, infectious disease,
cancer, migraine... the list is huge.
What can be done? Asking patients to cross Stockton Boulevard
whenever they have a symptom or disease that affects both the
mind and body will surely result in more than the occasional traf-
fic accident. We need to move mental health out of the ghetto, re-
establish good communication between mental health providers
and the rest of the medical community, abolish insurance sys-
tems that isolate and stigmatize mental health care, and integrate
mind health into medical school and residency programs (and I
don't mean the oh-god-I-have-to-do-a-psych-rotation system cur-
rently in place). We have to reject the Cartesian fallacy that says
that mind and body are separate: good medical care means treat-
ing the whole person. It's time to abandon the boulevard.
Dr. Risley is the first graduate of the combined residency program in family medicine and psychiatry at UC
Davis. He is a former assistant clinical professor and physician diplomat at UCD. In addition to practicing psy-
chiatry at TCORE, he integrates family medicine and psychiatry at Sacramento Medical Oasis, Inc
(www.sacmedoasis.com). He lived for seven years on Sherman Way, just across the boulevard from UCDMC.
Teenagers who call themselves Teens United "Teens for Teens by Teens" from
Araven Holistic Mind Institute (AHMI). See page 16 for a special interview with
Dianne Ross, founder and CEO of AHMI.