What Research Tells Us about Patient Outcomes, Cost, and the Inseparability of Primary Care, Behavioral Health and Public Health

The separation of the mental health from the physical health has created interventions and a delivery system rife with unnecessary fragmentation, poor quality and high cost. If treating the singular construct of health with two separate systems was effective , we might have already figured out how to achieve the practical vision of the "Triple Aim.

This presentation will set the context for this Symposium, and will offer clinical and financial/management data that demonstrates how treating one condition at a time, whether it is a “mental health condition” or a “physical condition”  results in poorer outcomes and higher costs, rather than achievement of what seems to be a promising “value proposition” through the Triple Aim. Current health care policy and practice shifts that may mitigate this separation will be discussed.   This presentation will offer examples of research-based models that are designed to integrate care and promote improved outcomes.

Public Health and Medical Care leadership face several significant healthcare policy shifts that allow for a renewed sense of optimism around potential innovation. Our ability to show improved outcomes on the patient, program and systems levels will continue to be compromised if we don’t use these opportunities to develop treatment interventions and systems that address the connection between mental and physical health. This presentation will offer insight for practitioners, administrators, researchers and policy makers.