CHS Expands Workforce Health Services With
Global Behavioral Health Initiative

RESTON, VA – NOVEMBER 18, 2008 – Comprehensive Health Services (CHS), a leading national workforce health management company, is expanding its behavioral health initiative beyond services specifically for first responder communities, to include a spectrum of services and training delivered internationally for government and commercial clients requiring health expertise across various cultural backgrounds. The new services include cultural diversity, conflict resolution, stress management, workplace violence, anger identification and management, leadership growth, supervisory substance abuse education and identification trainings, and vicarious traumatization. 

“CHS’ behavioral health services go well beyond traditional counseling and treatment services, which is only one-quarter of our behavioral health services. We offer a spectrum of services, including training, organizational development, and emergency preparedness and response, along with counseling and treatment,” said Paige Valdiserri, CHS’ Director of Behavioral Health. “Our behavioral health services are also fully integrated with our medical services to provide a holistic approach to treating patients.”

CHS takes a proactive approach to behavioral health by helping clients effectively prepare for and respond to crises before, during, and after an event. Its mobile behavioral health teams provide onsite response or call center capability, as well as an integrated national and international network of fully credentialed professionals with specialty training and expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic stress and disaster response. 

In addition to expanding its services, CHS has also forged a partnership with the American Counseling Association (ACA). This alliance gives CHS the unique ability to access the ACA’s 40,000 licensed professional counselors to quickly provide large-scale and specialized behavioral health support to its government clients.    

Having designed and managed full-service behavioral health programs for organizations like the Pentagon, CHS’ latest contract win requires the company to provide a comprehensive program in Iraq, including international and national death notifications. As a part of this contract, CHS is working with the International Institute of Islamic Thought, training teams of licensed professional counselors and local and national Arab American interpreters to perform death notifications within the Middle Eastern culture. This specialty behavioral health service brings the clinical expertise of the counselors together with the cultural experience of the linguists to help bridge cultural gaps and deliver the most professional death notifications possible.

CHS’ Valdiserri recently gave the keynote address at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Executive Safety Forum on workplace violence. CHS also provides behavioral health services to NASA by training senior management in areas such as stress identification, conflict resolution and disaster response. 

Founded in 1975, CHS is the industry’s trusted provider of employer sponsored health centers and national examination programs. Major corporations and government agencies look to CHS for workforce health and productivity management solutions including onsite primary care, occupational health and pharmacy services, as well as nationwide medical surveillance, pre-placement and fitness-for-duty exams. CHS’ onsite health centers provide a range of treatment and prevention programs focused on acute and chronic health conditions. CHS tailors health care delivery to employers’ overarching benefits strategies and supports each organization with integrated health information systems. CHS can also deploy medical readiness teams to respond to employers’ health care needs on an emergency basis. For more information, visit the CHS web site at www.chsmedical.com.

#   #   #