Development of integrated mental health care: critical workforce competencies

In integrated care, a person will have his or her medical and behavioral health needs addressed within one health care system. Support for integrated models has grown with the increasing awareness of how the medical comorbidities of individuals with serious mental illness contribute to their morbidity and mortality, the prevalence of mental health problems in the general population, and the mental health issues among those with chronic medical problems. The enactment of effective integrated care will demand developing clinicians who are trained to work with mental health needs at various levels of intensity, who are capable of addressing complex comorbidities, and who operate from a person-centered approach to care. In this light we argue that given their unique skill set and clinical training, Psychiatric-Mental Health Advanced Practice Nurses could play a critical role in integrated care and present policy recommendations which support the development of the Psychiatric-Mental Health Advanced Practice Nurses role in such models.