Overview

The behavioral health consultant (BHC) can help you reduce symptoms associated with various chronic medical conditions, improve functioning, or help you cope better with these conditions. The BHC can also help you and your primary care provider develop skills to effectively manage emotional or behavioral difficulties through behavioral change plans, lifestyle modifications, resource building, and targeted person-centered interventions. Behavioral health consultation is often sought for assistance in managing, reducing and improving problems with:

  • Stressors of any kind in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Persistent/Chronic Pain
  • Headaches and Migraines
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity/Weight Management
  • Stress
  • Depression, Mood, Grief
  • Anxiety and Panic
  • Sleep Problems
  • Asthma
  • High Blood Pressure
  • Pregnancy Health
  • Parenting Health
  • Attention and Behavioral Concerns
  • Tobacco Use
  • Alcohol/Drug Abuse

Community Care Physicians Behavioral Health (CCP BH) program is pursuing two goals in an effort to improve primary care services to patients with behavioral health care needs:

  1. To ensure that behavioral health clients have primary care homes.
  2. To increase behavioral health services in primary care clinics.

We strive to:

  • increase patients’ access to behavioral health
  • improve patient satisfaction
  • improve quality of life
  • assist patients in addressing their behavioral health needs

We aim to improve overall health outcomes for patients by improving access to efficient and effective behavioral health services within Community Care’s primary care offices. Our behavioral health consultants, or BHCs, function as core members of the primary care team. Behavioral health goes beyond traditional mental health disorders.

We work with patients by providing education, skills, and behavioral change plans. We provide evidence-based interventions for a number of behavioral health issues seen in primary care, for example, depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, chronic pain, healthy weight through diet and exercise, mitigating headaches.

The Role of the BHC

We provide behavioral health services to primary care patients as a consultant to the primary care team. We even help the PCP enhance the patient’s care plan. We primarily support the relationship between the PCP and the patient.

  1. The BHCs role is to enrich and support the ongoing relationship of the PCP and the patient by implementing behavioral health interventions generated by the referral of the PCP.
  2. The focus is on resolving problems within the primary care service context. In this sense, the BHC is a key member of the primary care team, providing needed expertise on behavioral health related matters to each team member.
  3. Behavioral health interventions look like primary care visits (rather than specialty care visits). Visits are brief (15-30 minutes), limited in number (1-6 visits per patient with an average of between 2 and 3), and are provided in the primary care practice area so that the patient views meeting with the BHC as a routine primary care service.