Name Melissa McCool | ||
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Melissa McCool is an American social worker and psychotherapist who created and developed STI Symptom Targeted Intervention (STI), a treatment model and clinical program that social workers, other mental health practitioners, and medical professionals can use to assist patients with chronic diseases who are suffering from symptoms of depression, anxiety and poor clinical outcomes.
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Early life and education
McCool was born in 1970 in Greeley, Colorado and spent her childhood in Fort Morgan, Colorado. She graduated from Poway High School in Poway, California. McCool completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at University of California, San Diego, followed by Master of Social Work (MSW) from the Columbia University School of Social Work. She is an EMDR trained psychotherapist.
Career
After completing her MSW, McCool worked at Mount Sinai Hospital as a medical and psychiatric social worker. She also did home care visits and worked with AIDS patients at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. After moving to California, she worked as a nephrology social worker at Renal Advantage. She is the founder of STI Innovations and mindstile.com, the e-Learning platform and community for STI and is an EMDR psychotherapist in Encinitas, California.
Symptom targeted intervention
While working as a dialysis social worker, McCool witnessed her patients suffering mentally and physically from depression but refusing to seek outpatient mental health treatment. She created STI in 2010 as an effective way for medical clinicians to help patients with symptoms of emotional distress in the medical setting.
McCool originally developed STI for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Social workers using STI with ESRD patients have reported promising outcomes. STI was included in a 2013 review of best practices for effective screening and managing depression in dialysis patients.
In the past three years, McCool has expanded STI beyond ESRD to support the many patients who are suffering from depression, anxiety, poor clinical outcomes and poor engagement who receive treatment for chronic disease in outpatient clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, or rehabilitation centers. There is information about STI at STI Innovations and mindstile.com.
In 2014-15, McCool traveled to more than 25 North American cities, providing 75 trainings in STI's techniques to clinicians. She continues to train clinicians to use STI's patient-activation tools through in-person instruction and through STI's comprehensive online training platform mindstile.com. Additionally, STI is used by medical practices and accountable care organizations (ACOs) for population health management. STI provides curriculum, training, clinical assessment tools, and treatment plans for these organizations through 20 min win, a system that allows patient issues, identified in required biopsychosocial care plans, to be addressed in 20-minute sessions.
STI is now being used by medical social workers in a range of settings across the United States, who have reported positive results. Further studies are under way on the effectiveness of STI in patients with a variety of chronic diseases who are suffering from depression.
Works
McCool, M. "Symptom Targeted Intervention (STI) to Manage Depression in Dialysis Patients." Hudson Publications, 2011.
McCool, M. "Symptom Targeted Intervention (STI) to Manage Depression in Patients with Chronic Disease.” Hudson Publications, 2012.
McCool, M. "Symptom Targeted Intervention (STI) in Medical Settings.” Hudson Publications, 2012.
McCool, M. "STI Patient Handbook.” Hudson Publications, 2012.
McCool, M. “STI Handbook for Cancer Survivors and Their Families.” Hudson Publications, 2013.
McCool, M. “STI for Oncology: Seven Symptoms, Seven Steps, Seven Interventions.” Hudson Publications, 2013.