Email UpdatesOn October 9 the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) presented Jodi Polaha, PhD, the Principal Investigator for the AHRQ Integration Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care, the Don Bloch Award for exceptional achievements in integrated care. The award, one of CFHA’s most prestigious, was presented at the organization’s annual Integrating Care Conference in St. Louis. Named after Don Bloch, MD—one of CFHA’s most influential founders, it is presented each year to a professional, regardless of career stage, whose work exemplifies Dr. Bloch’s contributions.
"There is much work to be done. Over the last 10 years, the field has moved from vision to implementation. We have a much clearer sense of how to help practices get started with integrated services. Now, in addition to advancing implementation models, we need to think about how to sustain them in a turbulent health care policy and practice environment," said Dr. Polaha. "I'm honored to receive this award. I am so grateful to CFHA. The colleagues, mentors, and mentees I have met through this organization have helped me sustain my efforts over the course of my career."
Dr. Polaha is a clinical psychologist who has spent more than 20 years working in primary care, including delivering mental health services, training students and residents, developing programming, conducting research and working in advocacy around team-based practice in health care. She is the Director for the Institute for Integrated Behavioral Health at the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. She also served as the co-editor of the journal, Family, Systems, & Health and on the Board of Directors for the Collaborative Family Health Care Association.