Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMH-I) is a collaborative program between Primary Care and Mental Health to address the mental health needs of the veterans within the Primary Care setting aiming to improve overall health outcomes. It is designed to improve treatment of mental health conditions and behavioral aspects of chronic medical conditions in patients by improving access and reducing barriers to mental health services. PCMH-I provides a suite of services to support the Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) of at least 25 providers. Services provided include curbside and formal consultations, medication management, diagnostic evaluation, brief counselling, specialized care coordination through Care Management, individual health psychological services such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain, as well as Group Programs such as Mindfulness for Stress Reduction and Healthy Choices/Harm Reduction. PCMH-I is staffed by a fulltime psychiatrist and 2 fulltime psychologists. Additionally, PCMH-I trains 3 psychology doctoral student interns annually. For more complex and severe cases, PCMH-I will connect patients with specialty care mental health programs.
