Integrative Care

Integrative Care

NWHSU’s vision for the future of healthcare

At NWHSU, we believe the future of healthcare is integrative, whole-person care.

We are committed to building this future through our educational programs, clinics, research, and policy work. We envision a future where “integrative healthcare” is simply “healthcare.”

In 2022, we created the Institute for Integrative Care as a home for our integrative care initiatives with a mission to reimagine integrative care solutions and education to transform healthcare.

What is Integrative Care?

Integrative Care is NWHSU’s vision for the future of healthcare. In an integrative care system everyone has access to care that fits their needs and providers work together—across disciplines—to help patients meet their goals. The result is health creation for all.

There is no one-size-fits-all model for integrative care. NWHSU published a position paper defining and advocating for an integrative model. In that process, we identified key tenets of an integrative care system:

The goal is Health Creation for all, moving beyond symptom and disease management to create resilience for individuals, communities, and the healthcare system.
Each individual is seen through a whole-person lens, taking into account health beliefs and behaviors, culture, and social determinants of health.
Interventions are evidence- and outcome-based, using a stepped approach to prioritize least-invasive, most-effective solutions to create health, prevent disease, and manage illness.
Healthcare is transdisciplinary, leveraging a broad healthcare workforce without distinction between “complementary” and “mainstream” care.
Care is layered and intersectional, inclusive of a wide range of stakeholders who address barriers to health beyond the traditional healthcare system.

Read The Position Paper

Established in 2022, the Institute for Integrative Care’s mission is to reimagine integrative care solutions and education to transform healthcare.

We work collaboratively with organizations and communities to build a system in which all people benefit from integrative care. We’re focused on three domains where we feel we can make the greatest impact:

Healthcare Transformation: Providing practical tools to help organizations move towards integrative care models
Interprofessional Education: Ensuring all NWHSU students gain a strong understanding of integrative care and its possibilities, and innovating to reach a wider audience with our educational offerings
Community Engagement – Building collaborative relationships with diverse communities and organizations to bring wellbeing and integrative care into their spaces and offerings

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