The Importance of Integrating Mental Health Services in Primary Care

Our psychological well-being plays an important role in how we live our daily lives. This entails being able to make sensible choices regarding our relationships, career, educational pursuits, studies, and every other aspect of our lives that are important to us. But our mental health can still decline and be at risk due to biological, social, or economic factors. How can we solve this issue? The key advantages of delivering mental health care through primary care are that it is accessible, affordable, and acceptable to people with mental health problems and their families addressing health inequities and ensuring continuity of care for this population (World Health Organization, 2018). For instance, a patient who has been diagnosed with diabetes may also be experiencing depression. By integrating mental health services and allowing mental health providers to work with a primary care team, healthcare professionals will be able to easily identify and treat physical problems that are correlated with mental health problems. This collaborative care promotes continuity of patient care which is needed more than ever. It implies that instead of focusing on one healthcare aspect, we should look at a patient case as holistically and comprehensively as possible. By comprehensive, this means that aside from focusing on hospitalizing a patient with diabetes or drug overdose, we should also focus on how we can streamline mental health services according to their needs. By launching a National Network Database where mental health professionals can register, HD Screening & Laboratory helps to address this crisis by making it simple to refer patients with a history of drug or alcohol misuse or those with comorbid conditions to the closest clinic in their area. If you are a mental health professional who aims to have more streamlined and collaborative care for patients, you can sign up at our National Network Database.

Reference: World Health Organization (2021). Mental Health in Primary Care: Illusion or Inclusion? https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/primary-health-care-conference/mental-health.pdf?sfvrsn=8c4621d2_2