A Single Integrated Behavioral Health Appointment Improves Patients' Perceptions of Behavioral Health Treatment.

Objective: To determine if a single behavioral health appointment in primary care would result in improvements in participants' perceptions of mental health treatment.

Methods: Survey data from 32 patients seen in a Veterans Affairs medical center primary care clinic were collected (May 2017 to December 2017) before and after a brief appointment with a behavioral health provider. The primary outcome measure was change in pre- to post-session response to 6 items measuring perceptions of treatment taken from the Perceptions About Services Scale-Revised.

Results: The single behavioral health appointment resulted in improved perceptions of behavioral health treatment. Pre- to post-session ratings on 5 of 6 measured variables improved, including the perception that patients would have fewer bothersome symptoms as a result of attending a behavioral health appointment, feeling treatment would be valuable and beneficial, feeling they would have time to spend in treatment, and feeling that behavioral health specialists are understanding (Ps < .05). Patients were highly satisfied with the single integrated behavioral health session. Further, more than two-thirds of patients for whom further treatment was recommended attended a second behavioral health appointment.

Conclusions: This study adds to the growing body of literature on the benefits associated with integrated behavioral health and investigates the potential mechanisms associated with the success of the single appointment.