For Immediate Release: Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Contact: Christopher Burley, 202-467-5730 x 133 or leec@bazelon.org

New Report Promotes Integrated Care for People with Serious Mental Illnesses

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Washington (Aug. 3, 2004) — Integration of physical and mental health services can both improve health outcomes and consumer satisfaction and promote efficiency in healthcare financing, according to a new report by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

The center reviewed numerous studies over the last 30 years documenting high rates of serious physical health-related problems and premature death among people with serious mental illnesses. Despite these risks, detection of physical health problems in this population is poor, the studies show.

“The wall between physical and mental healthcare perpetuates a public health crisis,” said Chris Koyanagi, the report’s author and policy director at the Bazelon Center, a Washington-based advocacy group. “The lack of integration can leave chronic medical conditions undetected and lead to higher healthcare costs and needless suffering.”

Titled Get It Together: How to Integrate Physical and Mental Health Care for People with Serious Mental Disorders, the Bazelon Center report lists barriers to integration of services, discusses models studied by the center in programs around the country and offers recommendations for integrating primary and mental health care.

The center found an encouraging number of approaches to integrated care. Two models—unified programs and primary care embedded in a program for people with serious mental illnesses—are described as particularly effective in:

• promoting greater access to prevention and treatment services;
• reducing reliance on emergency rooms and other crisis-oriented health services;
• improving consumers’ satisfaction with services; and
• improving cost-effectiveness.

The report also spells out policy initiatives for service delivery, financing, monitoring and quality assurance that public health and mental health systems can adopt to nurture integration of services through each of the models.

“In the long term, integration is likely to result in far more efficient use of both physical health and behavioral health resources,” said Koyanagi. “Now policymakers, providers and advocates need to get it together to foster such integration.”

The full report can be purchased online at http://store.bazelon.org or by calling the Bazelon Center’s publications desk at (202) 467-5730, ext. 110.

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The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a national legal advocate for people with mental disabilities.