Utilization of a psychiatric clinical pharmacist in an integrated behavioral health program of a community health center

Treatment of mental illnesses has slowly shifted to primary care settings over the past decade. As more patients are identified as needing treatment for a mental illness, the availability of behavioral health (BH) practitioners has become more strained, leading to this shift towards primary care treatment. With more patients receiving psychiatric health care from their primary care providers (PCP), a need for dedicated BH practitioners within the primary care setting was developed. This article describes a novel program where a clinical psychiatric pharmacist is utilized as the primary psychiatric provider within an integrated BH program of a busy primary care clinic in a major metropolitan area. Working under a collaborative practice agreement to prescribe, the pharmacist acts as the initial BH contact for the clinic, as well as a liaison between primary care and BH. Patients referred to the pharmacist from primary care are then evaluated and appropriate medication prescribed for their illness. Most pati...