Homelessness. Domestic violence. School suspensions. Drug abuse. Criminal activity. What’s one common thread that runs through all of these issues? Behavioral health problems.

And yet for many people — and society in general — the subject is still taboo. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, their community rallies around them. When someone has mental illness, the topic is hidden. It’s difficult to talk about and even more difficult to treat.

“If you go back to when I was being trained, the image of a patient with mental health conditions was a homeless person talking to himself,” said Dr. David Wennberg, chief science officer of Quartet Health, a company that helps connect primary care physicians and their patients to behavioral health services. “While that is a huge societal issue, that’s a relatively small proportion of the behavioral health world. It’s overwhelmingly depression, anxiety and substance disorder. One in four Americans will face a behavioral health issue annually.”

The prevalence of behavioral health conditions is greater than the five most common chronic health conditions combined — heart failure, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and diabetes.

Historically, people with behavioral health problems have not only been stigmatized, but faced the challenge of obtaining services, which often were not covered by traditional health insurance. In addition, services between medical and behavioral professionals are not always coordinated, adding to the challenges of treating the entire person.

And yet the importance of treating the whole person — physically and mentally — is important to help people achieve optimal health. “If you don’t treat the mind, the body isn’t going to do as well,” Wennberg said. “If someone has heart disease, they could have depression. And if you don’t treat the depression, the heart disease will get worse. If someone has diabetes, heart failure, coronary disease or pulmonary disease and a mental health condition, they’re 1.5 to 2.5 times more likely to end up in a hospital than if they didn’t have the mental health condition. They’re not in the ER for the mental health condition, but the physical condition that they’re unable to manage well because of overall anxiety, depression or substance abuse disorder. If you treat their mental condition, they feel better and don’t end up in the ER as much.”
.... integrating behavioral and medical care could save the industry $26 billion to $48 billion annually......

To read the full report, click HERE