ABSTRACT
This chapter orients behavioral health professionals to realities, trends, concepts, literature, and challenges they are likely to encounter while embarking on work in primary care settings. Behavioral health clinicians who understand realities and aspirations in contemporary health care will be in a position to build common ground and good relationships with primary care clinics and physicians and jointly improve the care of patients and health care practice. We describe some of the many possible variations on the theme of integrated behavioral health care from the perspective of behavioral health professionals, because this is who we are and who the reader of this book is likely to be. This chapter is based on what we have read in the literature, heard in discussions with people across the country, or experienced directly as lessons learned in our own work to bridge the "mind-body split" in the care of patients. It is structured to address the following issues:
1. Health care delivery in the future. The larger context for behavioral health integration is set by describing some trends in health care and what health care is "trying to be" or "will need to be" in the future, according to several authors.
