Behavioral Health Integration Program

Nationwide Children's Hospital and Partners For Kids have partnered to support community primary care practices who want to integrate behavioral health clinicians (BHCs) within their practice. Our mission is to help you meet your patients’ behavioral health needs quicker and more effectively by integrating behavioral health services within the primary care practice.

Our Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) team will work with you to:

  1. Explore: Determine whether integration makes sense for your practice and what type of integration model is likely to work best for your patients, providers, system and community.
  2. Prepare: Help you hire, partner, train and prepare for integration.
  3. Implement: Support putting BHI into action.
  4. Maintain: Provide ongoing support to promote maintenance of the model and help your model reach its full potential.

Why Integrate Behavioral Health Providers Within Primary Care?

  • Improved Access: BHI results in significantly more youth receiving behavioral health care. After integration, clinics often see 2-3 times the number of their patients receiving behavioral health treatment.
  • Improved Outcomes: Youth who receive integrated BH care are 66% more likely to have a better outcome than patients receiving usual care.
  • Improved Patient Satisfaction: Families and youth prefer to receive behavioral health care within the primary care office.
  • Improved Efficiency: BHI can reduce the amount of time primary care clinicians (PCCs) spend in the room, and may even improve reimbursement per minute.
  • Improved Equity: BHI has been shown to reduce gaps in quality and access.

Can You Help Us If We Are Already Integrated, But Have Some Questions?

Yes. We not only help clinics who are seeking to integrate for the first time, but we also support practices that are currently integrated. See below for a few examples of ways we can help existing programs. 

Adding new components to an existing model.

  • Developing new clinical workflows to target high need presenting concerns
  • Support additional screening within the practice
  • Improving measurement-based care with a registry and monthly consultation

Expanding BHI within a practice, group, or system.

  • Effectively add providers to an already integrated practice
  • Scaling to new clinics within the group or system

Supporting or refining existing model.

  • Measuring and monitoring important clinical and operational outcomes
  • Problem-solving low utilization or over-extended integrated BH providers
  • Refining existing workflows or clinical pathways
  • Providing education and support through a learning community

How Can We Contact You?

If you are interested in engaging the Behavioral Health Integration Program, please complete this form.

For general inquiries, please email us.