{"id":952728,"date":"2026-05-11T13:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952728\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:59:15","slug":"chair-file-hospitals-integrate-behavioral-health-care-provide-hope-and-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952728\/","title":{"rendered":"Chair File: Hospitals Integrate Behavioral Health Care, Provide Hope and Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Behavioral health is a crucial component of overall health and well-being, and we see the need and demand for behavioral health care services increasing for people of all ages. The AHA joins the health care field \u201cto elevate a conversation\u201d about behavioral health \u2014 as AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack wrote in his recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/news\/perspective\/2026-05-01-behavioral-health-health-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Perspective column<\/a> \u00a0\u2014 during May, which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/mental-health-awareness-month\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mental Health Awareness Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Every day, our nation\u2019s hospitals and health systems provide essential behavioral health care services to millions of Americans. To support our members, the AHA developed a set of strategic priorities for behavioral health care that focuses on four areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Integration.<\/strong> Increasing hospitals\u2019 and health systems\u2019 integration of physical and behavioral health services in acute inpatient, emergency department and primary care.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Community partnerships<\/strong>. Advancing initiatives by hospitals and health systems, community partners, social service agencies and others to expand access to a continuum of behavioral health services in a region.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stigma reduction<\/strong>. Reducing stigma and deaths of despair, while addressing the unique stigmas of specific age groups, cultures and other demographics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Suicide prevention<\/strong>. Preventing suicide through behavioral health initiatives, awareness and intervention.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The AHA offers a wide array of resources in all those focus areas, including on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/child-and-adolescent-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">child and adolescent mental health<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/maternal-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maternal mental health<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/older-adult-behavioral-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">older adult behavioral health<\/a>. You\u2019ll find links to valuable information and resources on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/advocacy\/access-and-health-coverage\/access-behavioral-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AHA.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This week also is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/ahia\/get-involved\/national-hospital-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Hospital Week<\/a>, and I encourage you to share your organization\u2019s stories and invite your communities to help recognize the incredible work that hospital and health system teams do 24\/7, 365 days a year.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to our nation\u2019s hospitals and health systems for providing hope and healing. Thank you also for caring for the physical, emotional and mental well-being of patients and teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behavioral health is a crucial component of overall health and well-being, and we see the need and demand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-952728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116556304758830256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}