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(Powerpoint presentations below)

Charge to the Working Groups

Integral to health care reform should not just be initiatives to improve coverage and to contain costs, but also substantive efforts to transform the way care is delivered. Currently health care in this country is focused on illness rather than health, on procedures and face-to-face interventions rather than on coordination and prevention, and on fragmented, specialty-driven care rather than on a primary care-driven delivery system.  There is a solid evidence base that shows that a health system centered on primary care costs less and has better outcomes on a population basis than one dominated by specialty-driven care.  For behavioral healthcare, this kind of system reform poses significant opportunities and challenges, specifically in the scaling up of the evidence-based integration of mental health and substance use treatment and prevention into primary care. Thus, it is through system reform—replacing a fragmented, specialty-dominated system with a more effective and efficient primary care-driven one—that national health care reform may have its greatest impact upon the behavioral healthcare field.

Through the lens of the six areas below explore the challenges and opportunities facing  behavioral health care and health promotion/prevention as they attempt to integrate into a reformed and empowered primary care-driven delivery system.  Please develop at least two recommendations for promoting efficient and effective integration. Be prepared to make a commitment for yourself or your organization that will advance implementation of at least one identified recommendation.

Click an area to view each PowerPoint presentation:

1. Reimbursement/Financing >
   
2. Children and Adolescents >
   
3. Workforce Development >
   
4. Cultural and Ethnic Minorities >
   
5. Research >
   
6. Population Health and Prevention >