Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka System of Care emphasizes whole-person wellness. At SCF, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness are considered just as important as physical wellness, and the Nuka System is designed to provide services to address all of a customer-owner’s health needs. One of the major ways SCF works to support whole-person wellness in customer-owners is through integrated behavioral health.
Behavioral Health Consultants (BHCs) are behavioral providers who are fully integrated into SCF’s primary care clinics. BHCs are available for same-day consultation with customer-owners; customer-owners can see a BHC by calling in ahead of time or by walking into the clinic and making a request. Primary care providers can also request that a BHC see a customer-owner they are having an appointment with, either with the provider or separately. BHCs also work with integrated care teams as needed for customer-owner cases.
SCF makes use of both targeted and non-targeted approaches to integrated behavioral services:
Both types of approaches have their use, however a system that is just beginning to integrate will probably want to rely more on targeted approaches. This gets people thinking about behavioral needs and also serves to destigmatize them. Non-targeted approaches can often rely on training other providers so they have a better understanding of how BHCs can help in cases where they might not otherwise have thought to involve them.
For more information on targeted and non-targeted approaches to integrated behavioral services, or behavioral health integration in general, feel free to contact the SCF Learning Institute.