Community Health Systems

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) assess, diagnose, and treat patients across the lifespan who seek mental healthcare. They work in a variety of settings and roles including outpatient clinics, hospitals, and residential mental health and substance use treatment centers. Key elements of the PMHNP identity include a biopsychosocialstructural perspective, recognition of the importance of healing relationships and of ongoing self-reflection, and emphasis on symptom management and self-care.

Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioners (AGPCNPs) are advanced practice nurses who diagnose and manage common acute and chronic health care problems.  The AGPCNP competencies span the patient population from adolescence and young adulthood in one spectrum to the frail and the elderly in the opposite spectrum. The main emphasis of the AGPCNP program is primary care, including preventative, comprehensive, and continuous care of their patient population. In addition, the AGPCNP learner will have opportunities to integrate additional competencies such as leadership skills and interprofessional team practice during their time at the School.

Provides a foundation for planning and evaluating community/public health programs; learning about community/public health concepts, health promotion, population-level interventions, grant writing, health care systems, leadership, and health policy; addressing health disparities of vulnerable and diverse populations; understanding and applying complex public health/population-level data; advancing health equity in public health through a social justice frame; and practicing and consulting in diverse and multicultural settings.

Faculty practice includes aspects of the delivery of health care that include the roles of clinician, educator, researcher, consultant, and clinical leader. Faculty practice activities encompass direct care to individuals and groups as well as technical assistance and consultation to individuals, families, groups, and communities. Student clinical practica and research opportunities for faculty and students are established components of faculty practice. Teaching, research, practice, and service must be closely integrated to achieve excellence and faculty practice provides the vehicle through which faculty implement these missions.

Interprofessional Primary Care Outreach for Persons with Mental Illness (IPCOM) is a faculty practice operated by the Department of Community Health Systems that involves multiple faculty members. IPCOM is a nurse-managed practice that delivers primary care clinical services in residential mental health treatment programs located in San Francisco and Napa. Established in 1995 as a partnership with Progress Foundation, IPCOM is an innovative, nationally recognized outreach model that is a member of the National Nursing Center Consortium.

Other sites where multiple CHS faculty practice include UCSF Health (primary care, HIV care, home-based primary care for frail elders and the Office of Population Health); the San Francisco Veterans Administration Health System (behavioral health and primary care); and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (mental health and specialty medical care). CHS faculty members also practice in a variety of community-based and occupational health settings including the Center for Elders Independence, Roots Community Health Center, and school-based mental health sites in Oakland, and Pixar Studios Employee Health.