IOL hosts program to integrate behavioral health and primary care
For far too long, there were walls between primary care and behavioral health. Those walls have been broken down – literally and in theory.
Clinicians across the Institute of Living and the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network continued with their work to integrate behavioral health specialists in primary care settings in 2016, as the IOL in September hosted the first of a series of trainings on the program’s new standardized curriculum. The setting was fitting, as the IOL has long been a leader in breaking down the siloes in the field of medicine and behavioral health.
The Primary Care-Behavioral Health initiative (PCBH) embeds behavioral health clinicians in primary care settings to provide consultations, diagnosis, treatment and referral for behavioral health issues. The program underwent a major expansion with grant support from the Connecticut Health Foundation in 2016, helping to increase the number of sites participating in the initiative from three to 12, with sites in downtown Hartford, New Britain, Willimantic and West Hartford.
“When PCBH was a small pilot program with three clinicians, we had confidence that each therapist understood the model and practiced it with fidelity,” said James O’Dea, PhD, MBA, vice president of operations for the BHN. “Now that we’re undergoing a major expansion, we recognize that we need to build training and ongoing support for these new clinicians so we can continue to see the same positive results.”
The new PCBH curriculum was developed by Barbara Ward-Zimmerman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and consultant with experience in integrating behavioral health into the primary care setting.
Since its inception in 2015, the PCBH initiative has been a tremendous success. Patients referred to the on-site behavioral health clinician were significantly more likely to attend their first visit (80 percent attendance as compared with 30 percent attendance for traditional referrals.) A reduction in emergency department utilization and inpatient admissions was also observed among patients who were referred to the embedded clinician.