Nearly 40% of all visits for depression, anxiety, or cases defined as “any mental illness” take place in a primary care setting, but roughly two-thirds of primary care physicians are unable to connect their patients to outpatient mental health services when more treatment or specialty care is needed. At the same time, physicians often face behavioral health clinician shortages, steep startup costs, and burdensome payment and reporting requirements that make such integration unfeasible.
To help alleviate this problem, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is advocating for legislation that would support further integrating behavioral health within primary care. You can help these efforts by using the AAFP’s online advocacy tool to urge your members of Congress to support:
- The Collaborate in an Orderly and Cohesive Manner (COCM) Act (HR 5218), a bipartisan bill that seeks to improve the uptake of behavioral health integration models
- The Supporting Children’s Mental Health Care Access Act (HR 7076/S 3864), which would expand the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Pediatric Mental Health Care Access program to improve access to child mental health care telehealth consultations and significantly increase the number of children receiving mental health services by augmenting primary care clinicians’ capacity.