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Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care is Essential to Effective Patient Care

Historically, behavioral health and physical health care have operated separately in this country. However, suppose we embrace the definition of health by the World Health Organization in its constitution as “a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” In that case, addressing the population’s behavioral health needs is crucial.

Consider this: one in four Americans will experience a mental health or substance use disorder this year, and most of them will have a comorbid physical health condition. Unfortunately, many will receive care without having their underlying behavioral health needs addressed, resulting in poorer medical outcomes compared to the general population of patients. 

• Improved mental health 
• Increased adherence to treatment 
• Improved quality of life 

Community Partnerships are Vital to Improved Mental Health Patient Care

A structured community network can include community-based mental health clinics, primary care providers, public health departments, schools, law enforcement, housing authorities, and faith-based organizations. These cross-sector partnerships are essential to maintaining the health of individuals living with complex medical and social needs. Sadly, as discussions are held within communities, network members realize that each depends on each other’s services, yet they still need to work collaboratively. 

The need for collaboration became apparent once they came together with common goals. 

Building successful community partnerships is vital to improve behavioral health services access. The effective collaboration of general health care, mental health, and other human service providers can decrease fragmented care, reduce costs, and improve the patient experience. 

Across the country, healthcare and community-based organizations (CBOs) are partnering to address strategies to improve mental health patient care. For example, the Center for Health Care Strategies and the Nonprofit Finance Fund have established a set of resources to help communities address common barriers to care and strengthen collaboration. 

Coordination of Care Through Technology is Key to Improved Mental Health Patient Care

Technology must be a vital part of the solution to improving mental healthcare. These innovative platforms enable care coordination at its source. In addition, the ability to share information is critical in meeting healthcare/community-based organization partnership goals. 

Cloud-based software platforms like PlanStreet allow agencies to share and track information about the people served and the services used. It can reduce burdens on staff by automating complex workflows, referrals, data aggregation, and reporting. 

Historically, multiple phone calls and faxes were needed to coordinate patient care and transition, often leading to the misallocation of resources. Leveraging care coordination through cloud-based platforms makes this happen with a few clicks. As a result, response time and wasted efforts in communicating with first responders and other providers are reduced. 

Access to an individual’s information allows the healthcare team to obtain the whole picture of the patient’s health and to better understand possible barriers to medication or treatment adherence directly at the point of service. In addition, information sharing through PlanStreet’s platform remains secure and out of view of unauthorized parties. 

From the perspective of mental health professionals, interoperability between the disparate computer systems in the community is paramount to success. PlanStreet’s cloud-based computing makes it easy for everyone involved to log onto the system using smartphones, laptops, tablets, or desktop computers. Care can then be easily coordinated among the various community services such as mental health clinics, EMS, law enforcement, social services, and other participating agencies. 

What is mental healthcare management?

The official definition refers to a style of care that involves educating patients and their support systems about managing their healthcare journey more effectively. Rather than treating disease, as would traditionally happen under a “case management” model, mental healthcare management emphasizes prevention, education, and social support systems. 

In this way, care management can be led by healthcare teams but implemented by individuals outside standard healthcare systems. This more comprehensive route reduces the burden on healthcare teams while increasing public health. 

Why is mental healthcare management critical?

When it comes to coordinating holistic care, mental healthcare management has a vital role to play. Under a traditional case management model, healthcare services are only deployed after diagnosing a disease. 

However, when someone has a mental illness, it can be challenging to recognize, find help, and treat. For example, it may be years before someone with major depressive disorder seeks treatment for their disease. Then, it may take many more months to find a specialist and receive a diagnosis. 

Even after all that, the first or second treatment options may not be successful, and it could be several years before the mental health professional and patient can find a treatment option that works. Under this model, people with mental health disorders may never get the help they need, and their overall health will suffer because of it. 

To reach people with mental health disorders, a mental healthcare management model is much more effective. Prevention, awareness, and education of patients and their support networks are excellent tools for helping patients who have mental health disorders. Using a model like this to address mental health can improve your patient’s overall health. 

The challenges for mental healthcare management services

While most healthcare workers agree that mental healthcare management is an effective and necessary measure for their patients, there have historically been a few challenges to implementing these services. They are as follows: 

• Lack of access to mental healthcare providers. There are still very few mental health practices available. This makes it hard for physicians to build relationships with mental health providers and prevents physicians from referring patients to them. 
• Small practices need more resources. With limited resources, small practices cannot adopt mental health services into their practice. Offering cognitive healthcare management and managing other conditions and diseases is challenging. 
• The burden of mental health falls on other care providers. This is because of limited resources. Appropriate care can fall through the cracks or be mismanaged when this happens. 

Luckily, some services can help practices that are not staffed with mental health providers—or are too small to expand their services to include cognitive healthcare management using some of the latest technology. 

The solutions

Industry best practices for implementing mental healthcare management include taking the following steps: 

• Identify populations with modifiable risks, including behavioral and psychosocial factors. 
• Tailor your services to the needs of different populations based on risk factors and patient input. 
• Facilitate training to access resources that address the needs of different populations, such as Mental Health America. 

Mental healthcare Management tools like PlanStreet can help you implement these steps by collecting data on the needs of different patients, identifying modifiable risk factors, and centralizing communication among various organizations. Small practices that traditionally do not have the capacity for these activities can rely on PlanStreet to implement mental healthcare management for mental illnesses and other diseases, too. The patient data gathered can be shared with other providers, and referrals may be made from within the portal.  

PlanStreet’s impact

Mental Health organizations work hard to better the lives of clients. Your work helps individuals overcome struggles and become the best version of themselves. Your team, and more importantly, your patients, deserve to be supported by faulty software and antiquated methods of organizing cases and creating case notes. 

Case notes are the lifeblood of any practice as they ensure payment, effective session planning, and reflection on current sessions. It is also paramount to keep these case notes securely in line with HIPAA to maintain the integrity of your practice. Planstreet’s software allows you to do that with our encrypted, cloud-based software. Document, review, and edit anything you need for your case notes with just a few simple clicks that save you time so you can spend more of your busy day with clients. 

How PlanStreet Can Help You?

PlanStreet’s emphasis on flexibility and security puts your health service nonprofit organization on track to become more efficient and effective. A centralized virtual workspace for your team allows for a wealth of efficiencies you may miss out on! 

• Increased efficiency 
• Nonprofit organizations run on thin margins, and your organization is tasked with doing as much as possible with very limited resources. More work gets done with less effort through a reduction in cumbersome paperwork, ease of billing, and client access to information via their portal! 
• Virtual workspace 
  Traditional office spaces are disappearing quickly as the modern workforce moves toward a hybrid or all-virtual approach to doing business. The mental health services sector is no different, and PlanStreet allows you to jump in full force and take your team wherever they need to go. Your team of mental health care providers can log in and access client information wherever and whenever they need it. 
• Optimized organization 
  Mental health agencies create and maintain an incredible number of records. Client files and notes, billing, compliance data, and audits must be carried out and accessed at any time. PlanStreet keeps you organized with document storage and organization. Digging through a filing cabinet for a patient record is a thing of the past. Quickly accessing and utilizing records is what your team deserves! 
• Compliance 
  The world of mental health case management services is highly regulated by the medical community, state and federal regulations, and HIPAA. Keeping up with all of the red tape can be a job in and of itself. It would help if you never had to worry about compliance with your tools. PlanStreet is a full-service, HIPAA-compliant software that lets your team focus less on compliance and more on the valuable mental health services work they are doing. 
• Flexibility 
  Your mental health organization doesn’t fit neatly into a box like others, so why should you expect your behavioral health software to do the same? PlanStreet allows you to customize forms, processes, and fields that meet your team’s specific needs so that you operate the way that works best for you. 

Mental and Behavioral Health Case Management

The complications that mental and behavioral illnesses carry and their equally complex treatment regimens mean that the job is far from being accessible for the nonprofits working in this field. For case managers, the management of mental health clients tends to become exhaustive when done using legacy methods. 

Using mental health case management software, they can simplify day-to-day tasks, bringing every function to their fingertips. The power, flexibility, and ease these advanced systems bring to people working in mental and behavioral health fields are matchless.  

Your team deserves the best solution for streamlining processes, increasing efficiency, and improving work-life balance. PlanStreet is the tool to focus your team on what they do best: helping your clients change their lives. If you don’t have full-service software for your nonprofit mental health organization, PlanStreet’s unique and flexible software is your missing resource. PlanStreet can take your team’s valuable work to the next level. For nonprofit organizations already using mental health case management software, PlanStreet’s flexibility and customization will breathe fresh air into your processes.