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Behavioral Health Laboratory(BHL)
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The Behavioral Health Laboratory (BHL) is a flexible and dynamic clinical service designed to help manage the needs of patients seen in primary care. The core of the BHL is a brief, structured interview that provides primary care providers with a comprehensive assessment of patients' mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) symptoms, along with the option of structured follow-up assessments as needed or requested. The system serves not only as a platform for care, but is also focused on decision support, including triage to specialty MH/SA services. Importantly, the BHL addresses identification of degree of impairment and co-morbid psychiatric disorders. There were several principles used in designing the program:
Cross-cutting: The program provides support for depression, alcohol and anxiety problems. Within each disorder, the program addresses a broad spectrum of severity, from watchful waiting for subsyndromal symptoms to referral management for the most complex or severely affected individuals.
Targeted interventions: The program provides assessment, monitoring, early intervention, disease management and referral management; thus, the program can be tailored by each center to their available resources.
Flexible: The program allows for multiple methods of case finding (screening, direct referral, pharmacy-based referrals for new antidepressants, patients self-referral, etc).
Preference/Resource-based: The program can target individual patients for specific programs or research projects. The decision support can also be tailored to account for primary care provider or clinic preferences.
Multi-modal: Assessments can be conducted either by telephone or face-to-face. The program can also be based at individual clinics or medical centers, or at central settings such as regional or VISN level centers.
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| Reviewed/Updated Date:
May 24, 2006
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