Community health center gets grant

LYNN – The Lynn Community Health Center is one of 10 Massachusetts health care organizations to be awarded grants to support integrated behavioral health and primary care services.The National Co-morbidity Survey Replication shows that 68 percent of adults with a severe behavioral health disorder have at least one chronic medical condition, and 29 percent of adults with a chronic medical condition have serious mental illness.Lynn Community Health Center has developed a care program to meet these needs. In the program, providers practice together on one team, in one location, co-managing patients through a ?shared care’ model and the use of a shared Electronic Health Record.Each team includes primary care providers (including doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants), licensed behavioral health therapists, a psychiatrist or advanced practice psychiatric nurse practitioner and clinical assistants and nurse case managers for care coordination.”We have been committed to integrated care for many years, and over time have developed an effective model of comprehensive care,” said Dr. Mark Alexakos, chief behavioral health officer. “We plan to use this grant to conduct a thoughtful and thorough evaluation of our model that will support continued improvement. We hope that by demonstrating clear outcomes and cost effectiveness, we will also support efforts to advocate for the policy changes and payment reform necessary to encourage widespread adoption of an effective model of care.””We believe the time is now to invest in and evaluate programs that have experience providing primary care along with treating mental health and substance abuse to help define what truly constitutes an effective integrated model of care,” said Audrey Shelto, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. “We are thrilled to be working with some of the most experienced health care providers in the Commonwealth and look forward to sharing information and collaborating on this critical issue.”