Nearly 20 years since Robinson and Reiter’s guide that introduced Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) as a model of integrated care (Robinson and Reiter, 2006), PCBH has been promoted to reduce turnover among primary care providers by integrating Behavioral Health Consultants (BHCs) into primary care teams (Reiter et al., 2018; Serrano et al., 2018). Building on this insight, this systematic review examines research on the effects of PCBH integration on employee burden and job dissatisfaction among the primary care workforce since the publication of Robinson and Reiter’s guide. This on-going systematic review provides recent developments in the integration of BHCs into primary care with regard to workforce outcomes, and thus addresses audiences with a general understanding of PCBH and who want to learn more about the intersection of behavioral health integration and the healthcare workforce. Results from screening studies that cite Robinson and Reiter (2006) thus far indicate at least 45 articles advocating for integrating behavioral health, with at least two empirical studies exploring the effect of co-location and proximity on health outcomes or on patient outcomes. There is need for research on workforce outcomes like burden, with a growing research stream of articles examining integrated behavioral health and its effect on burnout (Leun et al., 2020).
Sylvia.Hysong@va.gov