Implementation facilitation (IF) is a practice that has been utilized by health care organizations to support the uptake of innovations. It’s use has been demonstrated to effectively support the uptake of integrated behavioral health in the VA and to improve chronic disease management across settings. There is growing interest and incentives for bringing behavioral health screening and treatment into physical health care and for the training of medical providers in integrated care models. In Spring 2021, the Univeristy of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) employed a psychologist with training as a behavioral health consultant (BHC), health services research and implementation facilitation to lead the integration of behavioral health services into its multiple primary care settings across the state of Arkansas. These setting include resident training programs in Family and Internal Medicine, community clinics in urban and suburban areas of Little Rock, and training clinics in rural areas. This poster will present data on the levels of integration in each of the 19 clinics (using the Practice Integration Profile) and the pre-implementation strategies used in each clinic (tracked by the implementation facilitator) and across the system to integrate the primary care behavioral health model throughout the UAMS system. Quantitative and qualitative data provide valuable information regarding the barriers and facilitators to implementation of PCBH in an academic medical center with multiple primary care clinics. Lessons learned and will be shared to advance the conversation about the utility of formal implementation facilitation hired within a system to implement primary care behavioral health.
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