Join Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo., on March 15 as they introduce the new Integrative Health and Wellness Caucus: A bipartisan Congressional effort. In the midst of the largest American health crisis in recent history, this new Caucus will provide legislators and other policy and regulatory officials the opportunity to understand how shifting focus in healthcare to prevention, health creation and promotion can create cost savings while improving health outcomes for Americans.

The Integrative Health and Wellness (IHW) Caucus will serve as a non-partisan educational forum for legislators to: the latest on

Receive the latest information from experts on best practices and new research

Identify legislative and administrative opportunities across federally funded health programs to bring solutions to the American people.

12:00PM WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS

Representatives Mike Coffman and Jared Polis

IHPC Chairman Leonard Wisneski, MD, FACP

LUNCH BEGINS AFTER OPENING REMARKS

SLIDER BAR: Build your own choosing from mini burger, crab cake or vegetarian option of portobello mushroom cap on soft corn molasses roll topped with sautéed mushroom, sautéed onion, pickles, spicy chipotle ketchup, tangy barbecue sauce, old bay remoulade or honey dijon mustard.

12:30PM INTEGRATIVE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

What is Integrative Health? What is Wellness? Health Promotion for individuals and communities? While conventional models of health care often focus more on the diagnosis and treatment of disease, integrative health care empowers individual patients to address all aspects of their lives to promote wellness and enhance health outcomes. Personal and societal factors such as stress, nutrition, lifestyle, and even a patient’s relationship to their chronic pain and disease play as large a role on our ability to heal as medical interventions. This segment will highlight programs that emphasize the integration of modern medicine with integrative approaches and established healing practices to promote health, wellness and healing, and the access we have to these approaches in the community.

Margaret Chesney, PhD

1:00PM MILITARY INTEGRATIVE INNOVATION FOR PAIN & OPIOID ADDICTION

Active military and veterans face higher rates of pain that increases their risk of opioid misuse and addiction. This panel discusses the innovative practices being studied and employed to treat our US service men and women.

Eric Schoomaker, MD, PhD, (RET) Lt. Gen, US Army; Ben Kligler, MD, MPH

1:30PM IT TAKES A VILLAGE: COMPREHENSIVE TEAM CARE APPROACH

Comprehensive approaches to care holds the patient as an active member and center of a team of practitioners implementing care plans that work functionally together. This panel gathers practitioners from complementary fields of medicine and physician groups to discuss how a team would communicate and coordinate together.

Ben Kligler, MD, MPH; Gerald W. Clum, DC; William Reddy, L.Ac, Dipl Ac; Emily Telfair, ND

1:55PM CLOSING REMARKS: INTEGRATIVE HEALTH POLICY CONSORTIUM

With a mission of removing barriers to health, the IHPC recognizes that public policy is part of the solution. For patient-centered, prevention-oriented health care to flourish, many core public policies that govern today’s healthcare system must be fundamentally redesigned. Expanding initiatives to affect the public’s health over the long term requires a strongly supportive policy environment focused on integration and wellness. IHPC believes the creation of the Integrative Health & Wellness Caucus is a pivotal step in ensuring these initiatives remain a focal point of health care discussions as policy makers determine how best to deliver health care to the nation.

IHPC Chairman Leonard Wisneski, MD, FACP

This educational briefing is for members of Congress, their staff, leadership in organizations that represent patient populations and members of the press that seek to learn about the most recent developments in integrative health and wellness and ways to increase its adoption within the US healthcare system. Lunch will be served during presentations.

* For more information regarding the event or joining the Caucus, please contact Kallie Guimond at drkallieguimond@gmail.com. To join the Caucus directly, contact Bo Morris with Congressman Polis' office at Bo.Morris@mail.house.gov.

Amidst Opioid Crisis: New Caucus Will Focus On Integrative Health Solutions