Services and Tools for Behavioral Health Integration
A range of services are available through integration of behavioral health into the patient-centered medical home. From addressing the psychosocial determinants of health to severe mental illness, having a behavioral health professional within the medical home team leads to new opportunities for providing comprehensive care. The following resources can help with the transformation process.
Tools and Considerations for Implementation
Mountainview Consulting's Behavioral Health Integration website is designed to provide the latest information about behavioral health integration and to allow for dialogue with peers about important questions and issues in this area. This website offers a resource library of recent theory or research articles and other tools for designing and implementing successful behavioral health integration programs.
Educating patients about depression, assessing treatment preferences, engaging their participation and explaining the process of care
Using evidence-based guidelines and management tools for treating depression
Monitoring patient response to treatment
DIAMOND Depression Care Toolkit offers resources and support to enable primary care physicians to provide adequate mental health care including, access to psychiatrists who can review and/or consult on patient cases, access to a care team, a detailed medical guide, checklists and other tools.
The American Psychological Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American College of Physicians agreed on using the nine-question Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for the Measurement-based Depression Treatment project. The PHQ-9 covers nine criteria for depression, consistent with the DSM-IV. It assesses symptoms and allows the physician to track each component using a metric for determining if the patient is responding to treatment. The tool assesses the patient's suicide risk/ideation, which may help address physician concerns about potential liability regarding the recently highlighted issue of antidepressant use and suicide risk. The PHQ-9 is being combined with other interventions that assist primary care physicians in treating depression, including regular monitoring, medication management, and psychiatric consultation. The following resource provides additional information on the topic of PHQ-9: Depression Screening Action Kit, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Partners in Health: Primary Care/County Mental Health Collaboration Tool Kit is designed to help primary care clinics and government mental health agencies forge collaborative relationships. Sample formal agreements and contracts reached between primary care and county mental health agencies, advice from those with established working relationships, checklists, examples of contract content, issues to consider when brokering agreements, mutual role descriptions, etc., are included within this toolkit.
The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health promotes improved mental health for the people of Texas through the support of effective mental health services, research, policies, and education through partnerships with communities, service providers, advocates, policymakers, researchers and educators.
