Social Determinants of Health and Behavioral Health Challenges

The behavioral health field is engaged in a movement to expand the conventional medical treatment model of care that emphasizes diagnosis and subsequent treatment to the more comprehensive and inclusive model of population health. Improving “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group” (Kindig & Stoddard, 2003) is the critical focus of the population health model. The ultimate goal is to redirect the focus on social determinants…