Pro-Change Behavior Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce a contract with Arizona State University’s (ASU) Doctor of Behavioral Health Program to disseminate Pro-Change resources to students. As part of their course work, doctoral students will receive training in the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM) to provide them with the basic concepts and strategies needed to effectively use the TTM when working with patients.
Student practitioners will then utilize Pro-Change’s LifeStyle Management Program Suite with their patients. This suite includes a set of Pro-Changes’ LifeStyle Management Programs that won the 2009 URAC Gold Award for Best Practices in Health Management. The programs work with individuals to help them identify their readiness to change in relation to seven behaviors closely tied to preventing and managing chronic disease. The LifeStyle Management programs offer individuals access to a health risk intervention, computerized tailored interventions, and interactive stage-matched e-workbooks, all based on the TTM. Student practitioners will “prescribe” our suite of programs to their patients then use patients’ feedback reports to guide them through the stages of change.
ASU’s Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) program is the culmination of Dr. Nicholas Cummings’ vision of creating a doctoral training program tailored to the emerging need for innovative behavioral clinicians to practice in primary care and medical settings. The DBH curriculum and practicum are designed to offer a unique blend of evidence-based behavioral interventions, medical literacy, health systems, and entrepreneurship skills that will meet the needs of the health-care, reform-driven marketplace. The explicit goal of the DBH program is to graduate clinicians who can deliver and document interventions that produce clinical and functional improvement, patient and provider satisfaction, and cost savings by decreasing overuse of medical resources and the cost of lost productivity to employers. Dr. Ronald O’Donnell, Director, stated that he believes that “an upgrade to a doctorate for master’s-level clinicians based on this unique foundation of skills will result in graduates being highly valued in a marketplace that is searching for cost-effective care.”
The DBH program will be integrated with existing cutting-edge degree programs such as Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, the Medical School and the Doctorate in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Wellness.
Pro-Change’s President and CEO, Janice Prochaska, stated that “Pro-Change is honored to be an integral part of this first program in the country for Doctoral of Behavioral Health training.”