Name
Better Together: Lessons Learned from Pairing Primary Care Providers and Behavioral Health Consultants to Expand Integrated Care
Description

Collaborative relationships between Primary Care Providers (PCPs) and Behavioral Health Consultants (BHCs) are essential to effective behavioral health integration. This engaging session highlights lessons from a three-year Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) initiative that paired PCPs and BHCs during clinical practice to strengthen collaboration and expand integrated care delivery. Initially launched as a pilot, the initiative grew to include five PCP–BHC groups with evolving pairings and expanded into additional settings including women's health GYN clinics and senior residential care. This session will share strategies used to address PCP buy-in, implementation challenges, and practical lessons from scaling the model. Participants will also review qualitative insights and quantitative outcomes, including improvements in visit volume, patients served, and population penetration rates associated with the pairing initiative.

Speakers
Brooke Steadman, DO
Sarah Ortner, LMFT
Content Level
Intermediate
Tags
Medical, Primary Care Behavioral Health Model
Session Type
Concurrent
Objective 1
Describe the design and implementation of a PCP–BHC pairing model used to strengthen collaboration and expand behavioral health integration across multiple care settings
Objective 2
Identify key barriers and facilitators to PCP engagement and buy-in when implementing structured collaboration initiatives in integrated primary care
Objective 3
Interpret quantitative and qualitative outcomes from the pairing initiative—including visit volume, patient reach, and population penetration—to inform future integrated care improvement efforts.
Content Reference 1

Primary care behavioral health integration and care utilization: implications for patient outcome and healthcare resource use." Journal of General Internal Medicine 37.11 (2022): 2691-2697

Content Reference 2

Closing the false divide: sustainable approaches to integrating mental health services into primary care." Journal of general internal medicine 32.4 (2017)

Content Reference 3

Blasi, Paula R., et al. "Approaches to behavioral health integration at high performing primary care practices." The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 31.5 (2018): 691-701