Identification of Behavioral Health Needs in Integrated Behavioral and Primary Care Settings

Abstract

Assessing behavioral health aspects of health in the context of primary care ranges from supporting and encouraging patient’s healthy protective behaviors (e.g., self-efficacy, goal-setting, action-focused coping) to screening for and diagnosing mental health and substance abuse signs, to identifying those patients with intertwined, complex medical and psychosocial needs. Identification of patients’ behavioral health functioning is an essential first step in primary care integration, and, yet, it covers a wide range of psychosocial functioning. The behavioral health needs of patients can be organized on several dimensions: (1) promoting healthy behaviors and wellness, (2) identifying mental health and substance abuse risk factors and symptoms, (3) identifying medical conditions that are intertwined with behavioral health functioning, and (4) complex, intertwined biomedical and psychosocial functioning. The identification of patients within these areas takes on variety of forms—ranging from ad hoc to systematic population-based screening tools. This chapter offers a schematic template for the various methods of behavioral health identification along with specific examples of population-based tools for patients’ behavioral health strengths and needs in primary care settings.