Office Hour: A Deeper Dive into Trauma-Informed Primary Care: Addressing Staff Needs and Patient Trauma

Anthony Salerno Ph.D.
Dr. Anthony Salerno is a New York State-licensed psychologist with over 30 years of public mental health experience in adult inpatient and outpatient settings. He is the McSilver Institute’s Innovation and Implementation Officer. In that role, he assists organizations serving impoverished communities to systematically adopt and sustain practice innovations with an emphasis on implementing trauma-informed and resiliency-supporting practices in a variety of educational, primary care, forensic, and behavioral health programs serving children and adults.

In New York State, Dr. Salerno has developed system-wide strategies to promote evidence-based practices, with a particular emphasis on health self-management and family psycho-education. He was the lead author of the Wellness Self-Management curriculum-based program designed for adults with serious mental illness which received the Science to Service Award by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2010.

Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Salerno was a high school teacher and guidance counselor. He has extensive experience as an educator, clinical trainer, supervisor, senior administrator, consultant, treatment developer, and implementation specialist in areas such as psychiatric rehabilitation, health self-management, trauma, resilience, integrated care, group facilitation and health policy.

He received his Ph.D. degree in Psychology from New York University.

Laura Leone, DSW, MSSW, LMSW – Consultant
Laura Leone is an Integrated Health Consultant for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and has worked in the behavioral health field for over 20 years providing training and consultation nationally on integrated care, mental health, substance use, suicide prevention, trauma-informed care, workforce development, crisis intervention, evidence-based practices, value-based payment readiness, and other behavioral health topic areas. Laura has extensive experience in bidirectional integration, engaging primary care in mental health partnerships, and in specific clinical treatment modalities. Laura has published and presented nationally. She has previously held leadership, clinical, administrative, supervisory, research, and publication positions at a Federally Qualified Health Center; in private practice; at an in-patient psychiatric hospital; and at McLean Hospital’s OCD Institute residential program.