Behavioral Health As Primary Care

Integrated care defined as the better coordination of behavioral health services with medical services, holds much promise in addressing the above problems. One of the key advantages to this healthcare delivery system is that it can reduce demand for healthcare by providing patients with the healthcare they actually need. There is significant clinical research all pointing to one fact: many patients (perhaps even the majority) receiving traditional primary care or specialty care medicine also need behavioral care. But the question arises: How does one move from the divided healthcare delivery system of today to an integrated care system in such a way that the benefits of making this change are achieved?

To address this question we assembled a distinguished group of national experts to describe the process of integrating behavioral health with primary care. This volume, the result of a national conference sponsored by The Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno, assists practitioners, researchers, administrators, and decision makers in understanding the practical issues surrounding how to integrate behavioral healthcare with medical/surgical care.