Jan 06, 2024

ICSI Director Tani Hemmila Interviewed on RadioRev

Tani Hemmila, MS, ICSI’s Director for the MN Health Collaborative, was interviewed recently on RadioRev, a healthcare podcast for change makers looking to do more than just health engagement by helping people to take action and do things that improve their health. RadioRev produced by Revel, a Minneapolis-based company that develops health action solutions for the largest healthcare plans in the United States.

During the interview Hemmila and host Jenn Dellwo dove into the important work ICSI does for behavioral health, the organization’s focus on Minnesota’s opioid crisis and what’s ahead in 2024 for ICSI and the work of the MN Health Collaborative, a group of Minnesota healthcare leaders activated by ICSI.

Hemmila took care to highlight the work of the MN Health Collaborative as an incubator and problem solver for some of the tougher problems facing Minnesota healthcare, both statewide and on a metro level. She explained how innovative thought leaders work together in the Collaborative, including almost 200 people in different workgroups tackling issues like mental illness, opioid addiction and social deterrents to seeking treatment for behavioral health problems. In addition, Tani outlined some recent statistics highlighting the impact of the Collaborative’s work, such as a decrease in opioid prescriptions and substantially fewer people placed at risk for addiction as a result.

Dellwo and Hemmila also discussed the groundbreaking work ICSI is driving around behavioral healthcare, a growing concern for healthcare providers around the country. (In Minnesota alone, the number of people visiting emergency departments for mental health or substance abuse-related crises rose by 75% from 2010 to 2017.) Hemmila described how ICSI is working with emergency departments at all levels, from nurses to physicians to directors, to further refine shared standards for mental health crises. Suicide prevention and intervention is one of the first areas addressed in this work. This specific focus has already resulted in improved screening processes and improvements of assessments at 54 emergency care providers across the state.

For more information on these topics and ways in which ICSI plans to impact healthcare within Minnesota in 2024, be sure to listen to the entire podcast on Radio Rev here.