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Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) Model Research: Current State of the Science and a Call to Action

Abstract

The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model of service delivery is being used increasingly as an effective way to integrate behavioral health services into primary care. Despite its growing popularity, scientifically robust research on the model is lacking. In this article, we provide a qualitative review of published PCBH model research on patient and implementation outcomes. We review common barriers and potential solutions for improving the quantity and quality of PCBH model research, the vital data that need to be collected over the next 10 years, and how to collect those data.

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Notes

  1. Behavioral health is being used as a generic term to include services for health behavior change like weight loss, substance misuse, behavioral medicine interventions such as chronic pain management, and general mental health services for patient problem presentations such as depression or anxiety.

References

References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the review

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Correspondence to Christopher L. Hunter.

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Christopher L. Hunter, Jennifer S. Funderburk, Jodi Polaha, David Bauman, Jeffrey L. Goodie, and Christine M. Hunter declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Patient outcomes
Table 4 Implementation outcomes

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Hunter, C.L., Funderburk, J.S., Polaha, J. et al. Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) Model Research: Current State of the Science and a Call to Action. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 25, 127–156 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9512-0

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Keywords

  • Integrated mental health
  • Integrated behavioral health
  • Integrated primary care
  • Primary care behavioral health
  • Primary care mental health
  • Collaborative primary care