Advancing integrated health care through family, systems, and health: A brief report

Despite continued efforts to substantiate models and measures, primary care organizations continue to struggle with the implementation of integrated health care (IHC). The incoming editors of Families, Systems, & Health (FSH), a peer-reviewed journal that promotes IHC, seek to define practical and applicable processes and structures that can be adopted to improve patients' mental and behavioral health outcomes vis-a-vis IHC. This brief report assessed coverage of the IHC content areas in articles published in FSH between 2018 and 2023 and informs the coeditors next steps in adopting a framework focused on sustainable integration efforts.

To assess coverage, we conducted a rigorous and comprehensive analysis following the PSALSAR method. A total of 357 articles were analyzed and categorized across 15 thematic content areas operationalized according to the Lexicon for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration.

Findings showed that practice management (17.8%), family systems (14.6%), workforce development (13.2%), and diversity (13.2%) have been the most common content areas published in FSH. The least identified content areas included technology (5.6%), personal narratives (6.1%), and dissemination and implementation (7.4%).

We recommend that FSH maintains its emphasis on practice management, workforce development, and related other topics informative to the effective practice(s) of IHC. Moving forward, we also encourage a more balanced pairing of these works with research regarding ways to organize and financially sustain said practice(s) effectively. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).