A model for psychiatric services in primary care settings

The integration of mental health care and primary medical care enhances the quality of patient care and may improve the overall cost- effectiveness of a health care system. The authors describe implementation of a program that provides mental health care at 12 locations in a network of primary care sites associated with a university-affiliated community hospital in Rochester, New York. A project of the hospital's department of psychiatry, the program has as its goals improved recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health problems and education of primary care providers in these areas. Each of the program's three primary therapists provide short-term, symptom-focused individual, marital, family, and group therapies and case consultation at several primary care sites. The program director, a psychiatrist, makes diagnostic assessments and provides medication consultation to both the primary therapists and the primary care physicians. The authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the program model and plans for its future development.