Behavioral health integration and the risks of reductionism.

This editorial focuses on the topic of behavioral health integrations. It discusses the differences in types of integrated care and provides examples of practice elements that could be included under the umbrella of integrated care. (PsycINFO Database Record

In search of a perennial philosophy for behavioral health integration in primary care.

The "perennial philosophy," a concept religious scholars have studied for centuries, represents a search for the values, themes, and constructs that transcend individual religions. Can we who develop and disseminate behavioral health integration in primary care step back from individual models to identify our perennial philosophy? If so, what are the components? What does the evidence tell us? What do we need to learn? Four case examples are presented which represent many patients seen by both of us-a family therapist and a family physician-over our combined 55 years of collaborative practice within integrated primary care settings. Can these patients be cared for in a primary care setting? Our experience provides a simple answer-yes. However, providing care for this range of patients requires variability in team configurations, frequency of visits, lengths of relationships, and interventional strategies. Is there a perennial philosophy of how to design and implement the integration of behavioral health in primary care? We think there should be. we highlight a recent publication from the Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center, entitled "Core Competencies For Behavioral Health Providers Working In Primary Care." The authors purposefully transcend models in delineating eight core competencies. Embedded within these competencies are common or perennial factors. These factors may guide our field going forward, helping us avoid "religious" divisions, seek to understand diverse designs, and embrace integration of models to meet the needs of the populations and teams we serve. (PsycINFO Database Record

Empiric and creative: Are these opposed?

We feel proud that Families, Systems, and Health disseminates different ways of knowing, and different ways of influencing thought: empiric work such as research papers and conceptual papers in contrast to creative work such as personal narrative, poetry, and 55-word stories. In this issue, we feature an interview with Dr. Julie Phillips, a family physician, scholar, and poet, who has contributed both research papers and creative manuscripts to the medical literature. Our commitment to publishing creative writing is balanced by our longstanding pursuit of scientific knowledge, which also requires creative thinking. In this issue, three knowledgeable scholars and members of our discipline set forth a call for papers for a special issue. Jodi Polaha, Ph.D., Jennifer S. Funderburk, Ph.D., and Deborah Cohen, Ph.D. will be the guest editors of a future issue blending two goals. We want to help our readers learn how to study their innovations and describe their learning so others can benefit. This special issue of Families, Systems, and Health seeks contributions from authors willing to help others learn to generate generalizable learning. In the process of doing this, we hope they will share the results of their studies to improve, implement, and disseminate integrated health care. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reflections on the fifteenth annual meeting of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association: Broomfield, Colorado.

The fifteenth annual Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) meeting truly "disrupted the status quo." Perhaps part of the disruption came from a "less is more" approach. The combination of brief, focused presentations on either side of a cross national policy discussion pushed us all to reflect and react about what to do next. We look forward to harvesting and sharing your learning about collaborative family health care in future issues of the Journal.