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Integrated Care: A Critical Strategy for Chronic Illness, Prevention, and Pediatric Health

Apr 22, 2025
RE: Talking Points for CFHA Members Engaging Policymakers, Medicaid Leaders, and Local Officials Integrated care—the coordination of medical and behavioral health within primary and specialty settings—is a key solution to […]

Integrated Care: A Critical Strategy for Chronic Illness, Prevention, and Pediatric Health

by Neftali Serrano

RE: Talking Points for CFHA Members Engaging Policymakers, Medicaid Leaders, and Local Officials

Integrated care—the coordination of medical and behavioral health within primary and specialty settings—is a key solution to the most pressing health issues of our time. It is also perfectly aligned with the vision of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA): the root causes of chronic disease, promoting wellness, and protecting our children and adolescents.

Why Integrated Care Supports the MAHA Platform

Chronic Illness Root-Cause Care

Integrated care treats chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pain by pairing medical management with behavioral support (e.g., stress reduction, adherence strategies, lifestyle change). It reduces over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and increases patient agency.1

Pediatric Health and Early Intervention

Behavioral health integration in pediatric settings helps children and families address anxiety, trauma, developmental delays, and family stress—before these become lifelong conditions.2

Prevention and Health Autonomy

Integrated care empowers patients through early intervention, behavior change support, and shared decision-making. It helps prevent escalation of mental health and physical conditions through timely, personalized support.3

Policy Recommendations for State and Federal Leaders

  1. Fund Integrated Care Teams in Primary & Pediatric Clinics
    • 1.1. Allocate Medicaid and federal resources to support embedded behavioral health in routine medical care settings including models such as PCBH and CoCM.
  2. Build the Workforce for Community-Based, Whole-Person Care
    • 2.1.Invest in training Behavioral Health Consultants, care managers, consulting psychiatrists, peer support specialists and community health workers specifically for primary care and prevention-focused roles.
  3. Enable Same-Day, Behavioral Health Support
    • 3.1.Reform payment and regulation to support brief, evidence-based interventions for mental health and substance use—especially in early stages and for populations with poor access to care.
  4. Incentivize Measurement-Based Preventive Care
    • 4.1.Promote simple, scalable technology tools to track behavioral health symptoms like we do medical labs—ensuring progress, accountability, and patient-centered planning.

What’s at Stake

  • 60% of U.S. adults have a chronic illness
  • Pediatric behavioral health crises are escalating
  • Substance use deaths and anxiety diagnoses continue to rise

Footnotes

  1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21190455/ ↩︎
  2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34807644/ ↩︎
  3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8412979/

    Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash ↩︎

CFHA Board Response To Federal Executive Actions

Mar 12, 2025
RE: When it feels like our backs are against the wall. To: Our Members & The Larger Healthcare Workforce Over the last several weeks …  We at CFHA want to […]

CFHA Board Response To Federal Executive Actions

by Neftali Serrano

RE: When it feels like our backs are against the wall.

To: Our Members & The Larger Healthcare Workforce


Over the last several weeks … 

  • If you have been worried or deeply concerned by federal policy changes that impact the healthcare workforce,
  • If you have been directly or indirectly affected by executive orders, funding changes, or the darkness of the national rhetoric,
  • If you are a member of a community that is a prime target for policies that threaten your safety and dignity,
  • If the status of your ability to stay in this country is in question,

We at CFHA want to share with you: you are not alone. 

Our members across the country are directly impacted or work in communities deeply impacted by the series of executive orders that have disrupted millions of lives. The truth is, many of us, depending on our social, economic, and/or racial status in American society, have been here before and carry the legacy of communities bruised by political meanness, subhuman rhetoric, and undignified policies.

We believe that the dis-ease and unexplainable lament we feel—emotions that are necessary and appropriate—stems from the loss of our individual and collective ability to do the work of equity with intention, visibility, and support. A significant dimension of this real loss is the ability to explicitly do what we deeply value and the fear that arises with the loss of things we cannot get back. We also lament the loss of trust and the pain we feel as we witness the erosion of the gains in equity built through deep vulnerability, especially by people of color who bore the weight of such work.

There are also real losses of funding and human capital that have accompanied these federal directives and those that still lie ahead in the federal budget process. While we stake no political claim as a not-for-profit, we do call out the obvious: healthcare and the healthcare workforce are not the enemies of good governance and we should not be targeted as the cause of macro-economically related financial circumstances.

We will do what we have always done – integrate ourselves in locations where our people are and hold space for each other. Here are some of the concrete things we can do together: 

  • We will schedule community conversations to hold space for connection and to be present with our dis-ease and lament. Look for calendar invites. We look forward to seeing you.
  • Ask your SIGs to convene, share, and hold space. Reach out to the Board of Directors if you need someone to be present or facilitate. 
  • We will curate targeted podcast episodes to share new strategies and learnings. 
  • We will remember our past – the conditions our beloved women and men endured to give us the values and freedoms we have today and to remind ourselves that we have overcome before.
  • We will continue to gather intelligence from around the country and share what we have learned.
  • We will partner with like-minded organizations to promote sustained workforce funding and protections.
  • We will keep reminding you and ourselves to care for ourselves and each other. 

We have been intentional in the use of the word, lament. Drawing from ancient traditions, lament is more than just sadness, rather it is necessary to help us unfreeze from our natural response to traumatic environments. As all of you know, the issue is not that these rough-edged emotions are present but rather our refusal to feel them. Lament reminds us to feel so that we can find clarity to act. We issue this memorandum as a first-step of many and look forward to our continued partnership towards healthcare that integrates physical and behavioral health seamlessly. 

With equity, peace, and resistance in mind, 

Jason Herndon, President

Monica Harrison, Treasurer

Deepu George, Immediate Past President

The CFHA Executive Committee on behalf of the Board of Directors

Photo by Mulyadi on Unsplash

Celebrating Excellence: CFHA 2024 Award Winners

Dec 19, 2024
At this year’s CFHA conference in San Antonio, we were thrilled to recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals and organizations who exemplify the spirit and mission of integrated care. These […]

Celebrating Excellence: CFHA 2024 Award Winners

by Leiana Edwards

At this year’s CFHA conference in San Antonio, we were thrilled to recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals and organizations who exemplify the spirit and mission of integrated care. These awardees inspire us all with their dedication, innovation, and impact. Join us in celebrating their achievements!

Aimee Burke Valeras – Don Bloch Awardee

This award is the quintessential organizational award for members who have advanced the field of collaborative care, and who show intellectual, behavioral, and relational qualities that exemplify Don’s excellence and contributions.

Dr. Aimee Burke Valeras has been a transformative leader in the integrated healthcare community, seamlessly blending the science of medicine with the art of humanity. Since 2009, her contributions have spanned scholarly work, creative innovation, and advocacy for underrepresented communities. With a Ph.D. from Arizona State and clinical experience at Dartmouth’s Family Medicine Residency, she has shaped the vision of integrated care. Her academic rigor, combined with her creative approaches—like developing an integrated care Monopoly game—has inspired learners and colleagues to think outside the box and approach care in innovative ways.

Dr. Valeras is also a passionate advocate for marginalized communities, consistently championing individuals who are differently abled, racially diverse, or under-resourced. Through her stories, poetry, and group facilitation, she helps others reflect on shared experiences of loss, wonder, and compassion. Her work with organizations like Artcine and CFHA has created lasting impacts by bringing together providers, patients, and communities in the healing intersection of art and medicine. A true visionary, Dr. Valeras carries forward the legacy of Don Bloch, dedicating her career to advancing integrated care with creativity, intellect, and heart.

Elizabeth Zeidler Schreiter – Collaborative Care Model Award

This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to health care through their commitment and use of the Collaborative Care (CoCM) model.

Dr. Elizabeth Zeidler Schreiter, Psy.D., is a dedicated leader in advancing behavioral health integration as the standard of care. With over 15 years of experience as a clinical health psychologist and a senior leader at Access Community Health Centers, Dr. Zeidler Schreiter is known for her passionate advocacy, deep knowledge, and impactful work on integrated healthcare teams. Her commitment to improving patient care aligns with CFHA’s mission to unite traditionally separate healthcare services and promote integrated behavioral healthcare for whole-person health and health equity.

As a subject matter expert in the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM), Dr. Zeidler Schreiter has made significant strides in advocating for Medicaid and payment reforms in Wisconsin, helping community health centers adopt integrated care models. Her leadership in these efforts has improved healthcare delivery systems locally and nationally, with community health centers now embracing integrated approaches that were once unfamiliar. Through her advocacy, education, and statewide partnerships, she has guided healthcare teams in using CoCM to enhance patient outcomes, especially for those with behavioral health conditions.

In addition to her policy work, Dr. Zeidler Schreiter actively shares her expertise with healthcare professionals and organizations across the country. She consults, publishes scholarly articles, and facilitates learning opportunities that demonstrate the transformative impact of integrated care on underserved populations. As a national leader in CoCM, she continues to expand access to integrated behavioral healthcare through her teaching, research, and commitment to improving healthcare for all.

Matthew Tolliver – Pediatric Integrated Care Award

This award recognizes individuals, teams, and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to pediatric behavioral health care through their commitment to improving youth health under a holistic, integrated, and equitable lens.

Dr. Matthew Tolliver is a prominent figure in integrated behavioral health within pediatric primary care. He specialized in this field during his graduate studies, focusing his thesis and dissertation on integrated behavioral health and completing his pre-doctoral internship at Denver Health in Pediatrics. Dr. Tolliver was the first postdoctoral fellow and full-time behavioral health professional hired by East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Department of Pediatrics in 2015 and 2016, respectively. He has since been promoted to Associate Professor and Director of Behavioral Health for Pediatrics.

Under Dr. Tolliver’s leadership, ETSU Pediatrics has flourished, developing a robust behavioral health team that includes three care managers, one social worker, and two pediatric psychologists. This team provides a progressive model of integrated behavioral health in their two general pediatric clinics. Dr. Tolliver is not only an effective clinical leader but has also trained over 30 graduate students in behavioral health professions and has contributed significantly to resident and medical student education, delivering over 60 lectures.

ETSU Pediatrics has distinguished itself as a leader in integrated behavioral health, being the first to earn a PCMH Distinction in Behavioral Health in the state. Dr. Tolliver has spearheaded numerous innovations in clinical work, including documentation, care pathways, screening, and coordination of care. He has received multiple Mater Scholar and Teaching awards from the College of Medicine in recognition of his excellence in education.

Dr. Tolliver is actively involved in the Collaborative Family Healthcare Organization, having served on the Pediatrics Special Interest Group since its inception in 2015 and as co-chair from January 2021 to December 2022. He has presented 15 papers at CFHA conferences and collaborates on several federal and state-funded grants focused on workforce development and pediatric integrated behavioral health. He has published seven research papers in this area, including a highly downloaded guest editorial on the pediatric mental health crisis post-COVID, co-authored with Dr. Hostutler.

Overall, Dr. Tolliver has made a significant impact on pediatric integrated behavioral health at both local and national levels. His strong commitment to healthcare values, hard work, critical thinking, and teamwork inspires those around him.

Bridget Beachy & David Bauman – Outstanding Contributions to the PCBH Model Award

This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to health care through their commitment and use of the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model.

Bridget Beachy, PsyD, and David Bauman, PsyD, have made significant contributions to the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model, demonstrating exceptional passion and dedication to its practice, teaching, and advancement. Both serve as Behavioral Health Consultants (BHCs) at Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW), an FQHC where they are highly regarded by patients, providers, and colleagues. Their dedication to PCBH is evident in CHCW’s 2019 recognition with CFHA’s Outstanding Contributions to the PCBH Model Award. Dr. Bauman is noted for receiving the highest patient satisfaction scores and warm handoffs per clinic within CHCW, while Dr. Beachy, in addition to her clinical duties, serves as the Director of the PCBH program for the organization.

In their roles, Drs. Beachy and Bauman have co-created a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at CHCW in 2017 to train future PCBH leaders, contributing to the development of the next generation of professionals. As Behavioral Health Education Director at CHCW and Central Washington Family Medicine (CWFM) Residency program, Dr. Bauman has been instrumental in shaping the program’s curriculum and training structure. The program has been successful, with 67% of CHCW’s BHCs being either current or past trainees.

Their influence extends beyond CHCW through their consulting work under Beachy Bauman Consulting, which they co-founded in 2017. They have provided consultation services to a wide range of FQHCs, private organizations, and individuals across the U.S. and internationally, including countries such as Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, and Puerto Rico. In 2024, Dr. Bauman co-founded the PCBH Implementation Lab, furthering their commitment to spreading PCBH best practices.

Drs. Beachy and Bauman are also accomplished educators and mentors, frequently presenting at national and international conferences, including CFHA events. Their contributions to scholarly work include over 250 articles, presentations, and book chapters, with notable contributions in the PCBH Implementer’s Guide (2nd Edition) and works on patient-centered communication and rural PCBH implementation. They are active contributors to the PCBH community through videos, webinars, and the CFHA listserv, and their work has been highly impactful in helping healthcare systems and clinicians adopt and refine PCBH practices.

Their dedication to the PCBH model and CFHA’s mission has cemented their reputations as leading experts and advocates in the field.

Stephanie Kohlbeck and Kelsie-Marie Offenwanger – Family Oriented Care Award

This Families & Health SIG-sponsored award recognizes clinicians and researchers who incorporate the principles of family-oriented care into their day-to-day work with families managing their health.

The Integrated Pediatric Behavioral Health (PCBH) care team at Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) is dedicated to innovation and community wellness, serving predominantly rural areas across 30 counties and one territory in Michigan. Approximately 33% of children in these areas live in poverty, with 86% classified as medically underserved. Notably, over 70% of pediatric patients at MCHS are insured by Medicaid. A Provider Satisfaction Survey indicated that 88.1% of providers found PCBH “moderately” to “extremely helpful,” with 91% expressing likelihood to accept integrated visits in the future.

The PCBH team consists of Dr. Stephanie Kohlbeck and Dr. Kelsie-Marie Offenwanger, both fellowship-trained at MCHS, who emphasize immediate, holistic interventions for children, adolescents, and their families. They also consult with the medical team, enhancing care delivery. Dr. Kohlbeck leads specialty clinics focusing on complex conditions, while Dr. Offenwanger’s background in community health and youth advocacy informs their outreach efforts.

MCHS provides same-day access to mental health services within primary care settings, yet many patients remain unaware of these offerings. The team is seeking grant funding to enhance awareness by developing bilingual resources and promotional materials for patients, families, and providers. Increasing familiarity with PCBH services aims to reduce stigma and promote early intervention, ultimately decreasing the need for specialized behavioral health services.

By equipping primary care providers with materials on common mental health issues, the PCBH team enhances patient understanding and facilitates timely access to care. This approach aligns with best practices, reinforcing MCHS’s commitment to patient-centered care and whole-person treatment.

Looking ahead, the PCBH Pediatrics team at MCHS aims to expand its services and continue developing innovative strategies that prioritize collaboration, communication, and cultural sensitivity in caring for families.

Afarin Rajaei – CFHA Founders’ Early Career Professional Award

The annual CFHA Founders’ ECP Award serves as the highest recognition for an early career professional’s contributions to the field of integrated care.

Dr. Afarin Rajaei has made significant contributions to the field of family therapy through her innovative research, impactful teaching, and dedicated clinical practice. Since earning her Ph.D. in Medical Family Therapy from East Carolina University in 2021, where she also received a Certificate in Health Communication, Dr. Rajaei has been recognized for her excellence, receiving awards like the Outstanding MedFT Graduate Award and the Mel Markowski MedFT Scholarship.

As an Assistant Professor at Alliant International University, Dr. Rajaei shapes the future of family therapy by teaching courses in Group Therapy, Medical Family Therapy, and more. She is also an Approved AAMFT Supervisor, guiding and mentoring aspiring therapists. Her research, which addresses chronic illness in couples, the biopsychosocial-spiritual model, and mindfulness in cancer-related distress, has been published in prestigious journals such as The Family Journal and the International Journal of Systemic Therapy, where she also serves as an Associate Editor.

In addition to her academic work, Dr. Rajaei runs a private practice, Afarin Rajaei Therapy, and has clinical experience in various settings, known for her client-centered, compassionate approach. Her influence extends to mental health advocacy, as demonstrated by her widely followed public Instagram page, where she promotes mental health awareness to over 100,000 followers.

Dr. Rajaei’s impactful contributions to research, teaching, and clinical practice exemplify the qualities of an outstanding early career professional. She is a deserving recipient of the CFHA Founders’ Early Career Professional Award, as her work continues to push forward the field of family therapy.

Miriam Crinion – REC Research Fellow

This competitive award supports the work of a trainee or early career professional whose research project significantly contributes to the field of integrated care. CFHA is proud to support Miriam Crinion’s project entitled, “Evaluating the Impact of Integrated and Co-Located Behavioral Health Care in a Pediatric Primary Care Setting.” The two aims of Miriam’s project are to assess differences in the reach of integrated compared to colocated services as measured by the percentage of primary care appointments that result in contact with an integrated or co-located behavioral health clinician within 180 days, and to assess differences in dose (number of in-person or telehealth therapy visits) between co-located and integrated services of families.

Congratulations to our award winners and thank you for your contributions to integrated care! You can view the CFHA Awards Lunch here:



Dr. Don Bloch, a key founder of CFHA.

CFHA Luminaries Reflect On Whether The Vision For Integrated Care Has Been Realized

Aug 21, 2024
By Joellen Patterson, PhD, LMFT The foundation of this small project was a curiosity about whether, and if so to what extent, Don Bloch’s (physician, key founder of the Collaborative […]

CFHA Luminaries Reflect On Whether The Vision For Integrated Care Has Been Realized

by Neftali Serrano

Dr. Don Bloch, a key founder of CFHA.

By Joellen Patterson, PhD, LMFT

The foundation of this small project was a curiosity about whether, and if so to what extent, Don Bloch’s (physician, key founder of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association) ideals for integrated care as voiced at Wingspread (first CFHA meeting) have been realized in the world of integrated care today. C.J. Peek wrote an article nearly ten years ago about where integrated care stood in respect to Bloch’s ideals at that point in time, and this short paper is meant be a near 10-year follow-up to Peek’s work (Peek, 2015). This project was motivated by the ongoing selection process for a new Families, Systems, and Health (FSH) editor, in the hopes that a reflection of where integrated care was, where it stands now, and where it may would help inform the selection committee. (Since the inception of the project those editors have now been selected.)

From December 27, 2022 to January 27, 2023, the following people were interviewed about the state of integrated care, especially in comparison to its original formulation as presented at the 1994 Wingspread conference: Dr. C.J. Peek, Dr. Susan McDaniel, Larry Mauksch, Dr. John Rolland, Dr. Gene Kallenberg, Dr. Bill Doherty, and Dr. Mac Baird. These individuals were asked about successes of integrated care, current roadblocks to increased adoption and implementation of integrated care, the role of the family, and thoughts and ideas of future direction for FSH. Though many of the interviewees prefaced their answers by stating they had moved on from working in integrated care in the last ten or twenty years, nearly all still had insights about the successes and areas of growth for the field and for FSH. 

Don Bloch’s vision as visualized by C.J. Peek (Peek, 2015)

Interview Findings

All interviewees agreed that integrated care has made progress in the last 20-30 years. Some interviewees thought of this progress as more widespread acceptance of the importance of integrated care, while others pointed to the increased number of practices instituting (their own version of) integrated care. At the same time, interviewees were quick to point out roadblocks. One of the two primary roadblocks for increased adoption and implementation of integrated care is the lack of conducive financial payment systems. McDaniel sees the fee-for-service model as inhibiting further growth of integrated care and implementation of its central tenets. This was Peek’s opinion too, as he expressed that payment systems are still anchored in the mind-body split. At the same time, he notes that several sites have been able to take advantage of alternative payment schemes like shared savings and pay-for-performance, though these are still workarounds. The second primary roadblock expressed among interviewees is the “how to” of implementation, about which there still isn’t enough research. See below for more commentary on this.

Roadblocks for increased adoption and implementation of integrated care

  • Existing payment models (e.g. fee-for-service) do not support high levels of integration 
  • Need more evidence (RCTs, or other studies with comparison groups) supporting effectiveness of integrated care
  • Lack of unified conceptual definition of integrated care
  • Mind-body division still prevails as dominant healthcare view
  • Lack of manualized implementation strategies
  • Lack of involvement of family

One of Bloch’s original visions for healthcare was that it would incorporate both the individual and the family. All interviewees agreed that the family is still not involved or utilized in integrated care. There were a variety of reasons posited for this idea. One was that there is no financial system (e.g. reimbursement) in place that rewards any involvement with the family. This problem is compounded by the public’s lack of awareness of why including the family might be beneficial, especially when many primary care appointments are preventative. Peek noted that one way in which family is involved is through healthcare systems’ involvement of communities, of which families are the primary unit of care. 

Another part of Bloch’s vision was the balance between the mind and the body. While most interviewees still lamented healthcare’s stuck place in this split, there were some ideas about how insight into this faux-duality may be shifting. Peek mentioned that research about chronic illness, ACEs, health behavior changes, and depression as a “foreground” issue have all encouraged the medical field to see the mind and body as intermixed. Mauksch thinks, too, that that increased insight into the epidemiology of mental health issues have made integration more logical, as such epidemiology sees the mental and physical colliding. Despite these at least conceptual advancements into the shallow nature of the mind-body split, the dualism still dominates business models and inhibits further integrated care adoption. 

A third part of Bloch’s vision was about the importance of striking a balance between generalists and specialists. Not many interviewees commented about this, but the ones who did agreed that there was there are still too much emphasis/reliance on specialists. At the same time, Rolland thought that it makes a lot of sense for families to be involved in specialty clinics because, presumably, the person is already sick. 

In addition to being asked about Bloch’s original vision, interviewees were asked about CFHA, the role of research in supporting integrated care, and FSH. There was consensus among the interviewees about the unbalanced nature of CFHA’s member (physicians and behavioral health providers) makeup. There are various reasons for this. For one, as Mauksch put it, it’s never been that balanced. Another reason in Mauksch’s eyes is that physicians have less time and are faster moving than BHPs, and often don’t have the same research and academic training as do some BHPs. Third, many (if not most) physicians still don’t have the incentive to incorporate integrated care into their clinics because of their clinics’ clinical leadership and administration.

A number of interviewees had suggestions about research needed to advance integrated care.  These suggestions fell mainly into two categories: proving the utility of integrated care and explaining the “how-to” implementation of integrated care. Many people advocated for the need for more studies with comparison groups illustrating the effectiveness of integrated care. Regarding the second point, many interviewees expressed the need for studies about how to “fit everything together” for an integrated care setting, including business model, delivery model, and education and training. In addition to these two main points, there were rumblings among several interviewees about how there isn’t even agreement in the research about what integrated care looks like (e.g. a singular model).

Some interviewees had thoughts about FSH and what types of articles it should publish. Rolland for example, thought the journal needs more conceptual papers (and fewer data-driven articles), needs to be more multi-disciplinary, and needs to refocus on how to make integrated care truly systemic. Mauksch had somewhat different ideas and expressed the negative consequences of contributors conflating the collaborative care approach and the PCBH approach, stating that PCBH does not have nearly the same strength of evidence as does the collaborative care approach. Kallenberg also had ideas for the journal and stated that there are too many special interest articles and one-off articles reviewing how integrated care was implemented at a single site. He suggested that the journal needs more papers about measuring the effects of integrated care, papers examining integrated care operational difficulties, and articles that target primary care physicians more in an attempt to realize the importance of integrated care. Thoughts and suggestions for FSH can be summarized by the following list:

Suggestions for FSH

  • The journal needs fewer “one-off” studies about case successes
  • The journal needs more rigorous studies involving comparison groups proving effectiveness of integrated care
  • The journal needs more articles addressing workflow, training, and operational issues
  • The journal needs to have articles that better attract physicians
  • The journal needs more conceptual papers (Rolland)

Conclusion

In summary, while the field of integrated care continues to make advances, it still faces external impediments, like financial payment systems rooted in the mind-body split, as well as internal difficulties, like lack of a “one-size-fits-all,” or even a “one-size-fits-most” approach for implementation. Nevertheless, there is more support for the idea of integration and its potential benefits for patients, healthcare systems’ pocketbooks, and providers. It is an open question in what capacity FSH will propel integrated care going forward. Will it focus on disseminating rigorous research to further prove the efficacy of integrated care? Will it provide more manualized approaches for non-integrated healthcare systems to move toward integration? Will it be a platform for conceptual and experimental inquiry into how integrated care may look? 

February, 2023

References

Peek, C. J. (2015). Don Bloch’s vision for collaborative family health care: progress and next steps. Families, Systems & Health, 33(2), 86.

JoEllen Patterson, PhD, LMFT, is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Global Health, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

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