Lesson 10: Integrated /mental health/healthcare and future of mental health services in public sector Readings: Schuffman, D., Druss, B.G., & Parks, J.J. (2009). Mending Missouri’s safety net: Transforming systems of care by integrating primary and behavioral health care. Psychiatric Services, 60(5), 585-588. Hogan MF, Sederer LI, Smith TE, & Nossel IR. (2010). Making room for mental health in the medical home. Prev. Chronic Dis. 7(6):A132 [Erratum appears in Prev Chronic Dis 2010;8(1). http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2011/jan/10_0249.htm.] Mechanic, D. (2012). Seizing opportunities under the Affordable Care Act for transforming the mental and behavioral health system. Health Affairs, 31(2), 376-382. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/2/376.short View the short video on the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) website about a primary care program in Tennessee. Available at: http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/clinical/BehavioralHealth/ Introduction Goal 1 of the President’s New Freedom Commission Report states that: “Americans understand that mental health is essential to overall health.” This seems like a simple enough goal. It is, however, not as easy to achieve as it appears. The link between mental and physical health has long been a subject of interest to theorists and practitioners and has been studied in the general population. For example, in a general population study, Sederer et al. (2006) found that those New Yorkers who reported nonspecific psychological distress suffered more physical health problems, were more likely to smoke, be inactive and have a poor diet than those who didn’t report distress. They noted that these individuals were much more likely to have hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, asthma, and diabetes. The link with physical health is especially important for those suffering from serious mental illness. We learned in a previous lesson that persons with serious mental illness were likely to die 25 years earlier than adults in the general population (Colton & Manderscheid, 2006). Of those who die, 87% do so because of medical illnesses (Parks, Radke, & Mazade, 2008). These studies, results from Sederer et al. in a general population, and others show that physical and psychological problems not only co-exist, but also have a relationship. Treating one without addressing the other will result in inadequate care for the individual who suffers from both. Not much in terms of practice, however, has been done to address this issue until fairly recently. Why Integrate Care? Addressing the physical health needs of persons with mental illness has become increasingly important as more evidence becomes available of the link between them. An account of a recently held forum at the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care noted: “For years, the prevailing notion in medicine held that the body is treated in a physician's office and the mind in a ...