RHG has behaviorists (psychologists and/or licensed clinical social workers) who work as part of the primary care team.

Program Description:
Rural Health Group’s Integrated Primary Care (IPC) combines medical and behavioral health services to more fully address the spectrum of problems that patients bring to primary medical care. Because the vast majority of patients in primary care have either a physical ailment that is affected by stress, difficulties maintaining healthy lifestyles, or a psychological disorder, it is clinically effective and cost effective to make behavioral health providers part of primary medical care. IPC allows patients to feel that for any problem they bring, they have come to the right place. By teaming mental health and medical providers, IPC is the structural realization of the biopsychosocial model advocated so broadly in Family Medicine and Psychiatry. It is the reunification in practice of the mind and the body, for so long addressed in the separate worlds of medical and mental health treatment. As evidence grows about the complex interrelationships between mind and body, it is clear that the artificial divisions that have fragmented healthcare delivery are no longer relevant. In order to provide high-quality care, we must create strong partnerships that allow for collaborative practice.