Background

Psychologists are the bridge between behavioral health and medicine. Identifying the medical and psychological complexities that determine a patient's candidacy for surgery warrants consultation with a multidisciplinary team. Given the complexity of addressing obesity management, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommended the inclusion of behavioral medicine to ensure safety and the provision of mental health care. High risk cases can be a challenge to navigate and require coordination and planning to optimize patient success and safety with surgery. As such, we will be presenting four clinical cases that demonstrate how behavioral health providers collaborate with other healthcare team members within bariatric care. More specifically, the cases will incorporate high risk presentations involving eating disorders, substance/alcohol use concerns, mental health, social/environmental factors, and medical adherence in the context of bariatric care. The presenters will discuss how behavioral health providers can navigate these cases while consulting with multidisciplinary team members, both internal and external to the bariatric clinic, to provide comprehensive care. We recommend alotting 40 minutes for the presentation with 5 minutes of questions and answers.