Tonmoy Sharma, Sovereign Health CEO, Discusses Resources on How to Battle Addiction and Mental Health in an Interview with FOX 31 Denver

Measurement-based care is used to enhance substance abuse and mental health treatment which is effective in treating addiction, yet it is grossly underused and misunderstood as a standard of care in substance use disorder treatment. Dr. Sharma feels that the measurements used must provide information that goes beyond what a clinician can observe and understand about patient progress.

"Sovereign Health treats both addiction and mental health. Most centers only treat addiction," says Dr. Sharma in his interview. "We feel that it's important that your treatment center treats the underlining cause. If you're drinking, are you drinking because you're depressed or are you depressed cause you're drinking? It needs to be an important part of treatment that you are treating the mental health aspect of the addiction problem."

To capture that information, he defines the key therapeutic variables for effective measurement-based care as the following:

• Symptom quantity and severity according to patient
• Functional status and quality of life
• Readiness to change
• Working alliance

"The treatment itself has to be based on evidence," adds Dr. Sharma. "We do in-house assessments, and based on those assessments, we provide individualized treatment plans."

The shift toward measurement-based care stands to benefit all parties involved, including patients, providers and payers. Patients have better communication with their provider and improved outcomes. Providers gain new tools to use in treatment decision-making. Payers gain quantifiable evidence supporting the services for which they must cover. Besides, beginning in 2018, the Joint Commission will require its accredited treatment centers to use measurement-based care.

About Tonmoy Sharma
Tonmoy Sharma, has spent years crisscrossing the country presenting on measurement-based care at conferences and community events. His hope is that in the not-too-distant future, clinicians and the public nationwide will embrace measurement-based care as the highly successful, evidence-based treatment that is the best approach to treating addiction and mental health issues.

Sharma has been recognized with numerous awards, honors and grants for his work in advancing mental health and its treatment in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia. He is a prolific researcher and scientist as well as the author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and five books on schizophrenia and mental illness. Dr. Sharma has served on numerous editorial boards, acted as peer reviewer for 14 international medical journals, and has been on various advisory boards governing the development of antipsychotics. He currently co-hosts KABC 790 AM's "In Your Right Mind," a cutting-edge, weekly radio show that covers various topics in behavioral health, and was selected by the Orange County Business Journal to be listed in the OC500 as one of the most influential people in the Orange County business community in 2016.

About Sovereign Health
Sovereign Health is a network of detox and behavioral health treatment centers that have qualified for the Joint Commission's Gold Seal accreditation. The company consistently ranks as a top provider of behavioral health services, according to the independent eBASIS report from McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. In McLean's quarterly reports for 2016, Sovereign has surpassed 50 other treatment centers nationwide in several important health care measures.

Sovereign Health's facilities are licensed in accordance with state regulations. The Joint Commission is the nation's leading health care standards-setting and accrediting organization and sets a very high bar for qualifying for the Gold Seal designation. Sovereign's extensive national network of nine facilities across five states also enjoys the distinction of being accredited to provide concurrent mental health and substance use treatment, a rarity in the field.

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

SOURCE Sovereign Health

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http://www.sovhealth.com