Poster 67 – Patient Acceptance of Primary Care Behavioral Health in a Resident Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic

Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) is a model in primary care in which a Behavioral Health Consultant (BHC) works alongside the primary care provider (PCP) to address behavioral components of health conditions. PCBH has been shown to be well-received in the primary care setting, however little is known about acceptability of the service among the prenatal patients. The survey-based study was carried out to explore the acceptability of PCBH among pregnant patients in a resident obstetrics and gynecology clinic. The majority of patients would like to receive education on pregnancy-relevant topics from the BHC: healthy weight gain (68.4%), healthy eating (70.4%), healthy exercise (73.5%) and mood disorders (63.3%). The majority of participants would like BHC help in managing co-existing conditions affecting pregnancy: stress (63.3%), depression (75.5%) or anxiety (73%). The majority of patients (55.6%) prefered to work with a BHC for mental health concerns rather than an outside psychiatrist or counselor. PCBH service was perceived to be easy to understand (78%). Barriers to engaging in the PCBH service included: time (41.4%) lack of perception of need (13.8%), uncertainty about service (13.8%), and unavailability (6.9%). The study overall showed that patient acceptability of the PCBH model for prenatal care at a resident OBGYN clinic was high