Where Are We On The Road To Integration Of Physical & Behavioral Health Care?

Simply put, integrated health care is the systematic coordination of mental health care with physical health care services. This means aligning behavioral health care (care for ailments such as depression, autism, or addiction disorders) with primary care—such as treatments for broken bones and seasonal flus. The significance for patients and their families with more than one health condition or comorbidity is that with integrated care, they can have their health needs met by a central provider organization that has all these services available instead of having to make many different appointments with different offices.

In the 1980s and early . . .