Name
Lessons From a Pioneer: Successes, Challenges, and Next Steps from 22 Years of Behavioral Health Integration
Description

Southcentral Foundation (SCF), an Alaska Native customer-owned health care system, first integrated behavioral health (BH) services into primary care 22 years ago. Since then, SCF has expanded its integrated behavioral services greatly, with demand increasing as customer-owners became more comfortable with requesting BH care. This session covers what stakeholders and influences cultivated SCFs first integrated behavioral services, how SCF uses Behavioral Health Consultants (BHC) to support comprehensive and changing primary care over the lifespan, and how SCF has expanded BHC responsibilities to meet these needs. Also covered will be the challenges SCF faced in integrating services, how SCF navigated those challenges, and how integration has benefited both customer-owners and primary care clinics.

Content Level
All Audience
Tags
Population and public health, Team-based care, Workforce development
Session Type
Concurrent
Objective 1
Identify the core elements of SCF’s system of integrated behavioral health
Objective 2
Describe how SCF expands and improves behavioral service offerings based on feedback from customer-owners
Objective 3
Identify the ways in which integrating behavioral services benefits both customer-owners and primary care clinics
Content Reference 1

Increasing Access to and Utilization of Behavioral Health Care Through Integrated Primary Care https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/152/6/e2023062514/195464/Increasing-Access-to-and-Utilization-of-Behavioral

Content Reference 2

Designing and scaling up integrated youth mental health care https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wps.20938

Content Reference 3

Integrated Behavioral Health Services and Psychosocial Symptoms in Children https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2839009

Content Reference 4

Integrated Behavioral Health Care https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-29171-5_33

Content Reference 5

Integrated behavioral health care as a means of addressing common behavioral health concerns within pediatric primary care https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1538544224001664