Podcast 04 – Entering the IBH World – Now I Can See

Summary

The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) Model illustrates the importance of including behavioral health providers within primary care settings with the goal of using a team-based approach to care to address biopsychosocial concerns that arise during visits (Reiter, J., Dobmeyer, A., & Hunter, C., 2018). Often when behavioral health providers are added to the team, medical providers are not part of the initial conversation on how this integration may change a variety of components of medical visits. Collaborative and team-based care is not a simple solution that is automatic once a behavioral health clinician (BHC) is added to the team. Both medical providers and BHCs have different language that is used during patient contact and requires continuous communication between providers in order to build trust with families and reliance on each other to meet the families’ needs. BHCs in integrated setting typically are expected to be the leader in teaching medical providers on how to build collaboration through warm hand-offs, co-visits, etc., although BHCs can also learn invaluable information when present for medical visits. Medical providers and BHCs will discuss and review their different viewpoints on specific cases that they have experienced within their clinics and how collaborative, integrated care has improved patient care. Ideas on how to continue to grow collaboration in a money driven landscape will be discussed.