Ted Epperly

THE DEVELOPMENT OF JOINT PRINCIPLES: INTEGRATING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE INTO THE PATIENT-CENTERED MEDICAL HOME

The world of primary care was galvanized in 2007 by the publication of the Joint Principles of The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) that spells out the fundamental features of a primary health care setting in which a team of clinicians offers accessible first-contact primary care.[1][1] This

Joint principles: integrating behavioral health care into the patient-centered medical home.

The Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an innovative, improved, and evolving approach to providing primary care that has gained broad acceptance in the United States. The Joint Principles of the PCMH, formulated and endorsed in February 2007, are sound and describe the ideal toward which we

Joint principles: Integrating behavioral health care into the patient-centered medical home

The Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an innovative, improved, and evolving approach to providing primary care that has gained broad acceptance in the United States. The Joint Principles of the PCMH, formulated and endorsed in February 2007, are sound and describe the ideal toward which we aspire. However, there is an element running implicitly through these joint principles that is difficult to achieve yet indispensable to the success of the entire PCMH concept. The incorporation of behavioral health care has not always been included as practices transform to accommodate to the PCMH ideals. This is an alarming development because the PCMH will be incomplete and ineffective without the full incorporation of this element, and retrofitting will be much more difficult than prospectively integrating into the original design of the PCMH. Therefore we offer a complementary set of joint principles that recognizes the centrality of behavioral health care as part of the PCMH. This document follows the order and language of the original joint principles while emphasizing what needs to be addressed to insure incorporation of the essential behavioral elements. It is intended to supplement and not replace the original Joint Principles document, which still stands.

The development of joint principles: Integrating behavioral health care into the patient-Centered medical home

This article describes the development of the Joint Principles of The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the Working Party Group on Integrated Behavioral Healthcare. The Joint Principles establish the primacy of integrated behavioral health care as a core principle of the PCMH.

President's message. It's a new day for health reform in Washington-and you should be involved.

AAFP President Ted Epperly, MD, (left, standing) tells President Obama that the AAFP is “ready to do its part” to support health care reform.