ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a simple, evidence-based design for the modern behavioral health clinic that fully integrates addiction and mental health diagnoses, treatment, clinical expertise, and professional training under one roof, as provided by one treatment team. The US and other nations are suffering from under-resourced, highly fragmented and overtly failing mental health and addiction treatment systems. Serious domestic public health, social, and economic costs are mounting as a result of this breakdown, ranging from the disgraces of mass incarceration and homelessness, to the growth of an unsustainably expensive health care system. The negative consequences of this set-up are far reaching both for individual patients trying to get expert, evidence-based care, and for the operations, costs, and effectiveness of behavioral health as a whole.
