The Behavioral Medicine team at Cooper includes health psychologists with specialized training working with medical populations. Our team sees patients who are medically admitted across Cooper departments and floors through the consultation-liaison service and subspecialty inpatient psychologists cover Critical Care, Trauma Surgery, and Emergency Medicine. As acute or chronic illness is often accompanied by stress, the team provides assessments and evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions to treat changes in mood, anxiety, pain, and sleep related to a patient’s medical status and hospitalization.
In addition to providing recommendations for the patient to practice strategies to independently manage distress, the Behavioral Medicine team also collaborates with medical teams to make recommendations about how best to communicate and work with patients based on their psychological presentation. Reasons that a member of the Behavioral Health team might consult with a patient include:
- Adjustment to new medical diagnoses or coping with chronic illness.
- Distress related to hospitalization.
- New trauma (medical, accident, interpersonal violence, domestic violence).
- Behavioral pain management.
- Grief and loss.
- Sleep/insomnia.
- Treatment adherence.
- The need for a behavioral change to improve health (e.g., addressing anxiety prior to or after surgery).
- Behavioral contracts for patients struggling with poor interpersonal style and behavior.
To consult with the Behavioral Medicine team for any medically admitted patients, please order a consult in Epic by choosing “CONSULT TO UNIV BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE.” The team is also available by email at behavioral-medicine@cooperhealth.edu and at extension 108-0597.
Cooper’s Behavioral Medicine team.