Nationwide, health care systems are experiencing an increasingly rapid pace of health reforms, especially in burgeoning areas such as health homes, accountable care organizations, which emphasize the growing need for bidirectional integration of primary care and behavioral health. Several articles in this issue of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research explore care that requires collaboration between primary and behavioral health: “Predictors of primary care physicians’ self-reported intention to conduct suicide risk assessments” by Lisa M Hooper et al., “Outcomes associated with a cognitive-behavioral chronic pain management program implemented in three public HIV primary care clinics” by Jodie Anne Trafton et al., and the “Relationship between neighborhood characteristics and recruitment into adolescent family-based substance use prevention programs” by Hilary F. Byrnes et al. However, is this emphasis on integration a threat or opportunity for specialty addiction treatment organizations? A recent U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration–U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration Center for Integrated Health Solutions survey 1 identified a growing number of specialty addictions treatment organizations that partner with community health centers, methadone treatment centers that qualify as Federally Qualified Health Centers, and residential treatment programs that offer primary care services onsite. Even state alcohol and drug authorities are focusing on integration at annual provider meetings and state training academies. In communities, specialty addiction treatment organizations have long held relationships with primary care practices. Historically, these relationships have ensured physicals for individuals entering residential care, interim services for pregnant women and individuals using intravenous drugs, and, more recently, medication interventions as a part of addiction treatment. New integration models serve to enhance providers’ opportunities to reach individuals in earlier stages of addiction, and the earlier treatment that follows could assuage damage to their bodies and improve overall treatment outcomes. Developing recovery plans which incorporate overall health, including exercise, prevention, and specific public health goals for chronic health problems, support recovery. In terms of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), specialty addiction professionals fill a gap in primary care settings by supporting “referral to treatment.” Without this involvement of addiction professionals, SBIRT programs often fail when a patient requires a
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