Approximately 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy at some point in their lives. Although epilepsy is one of the nation’s most common neurological disorders, public understanding is limited. A complex spectrum of disorders, epilepsy affects an estimated 2.2 million people in the United States. Living with epilepsy is about more than just seizures; it is often defined in practical terms, such as challenges, uncertainties, and limitations in school, social situations, employment, driving, and independent living. People with epilepsy are also faced with health and community services that are fragmented, uncoordinated, and difficult to obtain. The Institute of Medicine’s report, Epilepsy Across the Spectrum: Promoting Health and Understanding [1], examines the public health dimensions of epilepsy with a focus on: (a) public health surveillance and data collection and integration; (b) population and public health research; (c) health policy, health care, and human services; and (d) education for providers, people with epilepsy and their families, and the public. The report’s recommendations range from the expansion of collaborative epilepsy surveillance efforts, to the independent accreditation of epilepsy centers, to the coordination of public awareness efforts, to the engagement of people with epilepsy and their families in education, dissemination, and advocacy activities. Given the current gaps in epilepsy knowledge, care, and education, there is an urgent need to take action—across multiple dimensions—to improve the lives of people with epilepsy and their families. The realistic, feasible, and action-oriented recommendations in this report can help enable short- and long-term improvements for people with epilepsy.

Purpose: To provide empirical evidence on key organizing constructs shaping practical, real-world integration of behavior health and primary care to comprehensively address patients' medical, emotional, and behavioral health needs.Methods: In a comparative case study using an immersion-crystallization approach, a multidisciplinary team analyzed data from observations of practice operations, interviews, and surveys of practice members, and implementation diaries. Practices were drawn from 2 studies of practices attempting to integrate behavioral health and primary care: Advancing Care Together, a demonstration project of 11 practices located in Colorado, and the Integration Workforce Study, a study of 8 practices across the United States.Results: We identified 5 key organizing constructs influencing integration of primary care and behavioral health: 1) Integration REACH (the extent to which the integration program was delivered to the identified target population), 2) establishment of continuum of care pathways addressing the location of care across the range of patient's severity of illness, 3) approach to patient transitions: referrals or warm handoffs, 4) location of the integration workforce, and 5) participants' mental model for integration. These constructs intertwine within an organization's historic and social context to produce locally adapted approaches to integrating care. Contextual factors, particularly practice type, influenced whether specialty mental health and substance use services were colocated within an organization.Conclusion: Interaction among 5 organizing constructs and practice context produces diverse expressions of integrated care. These constructs provide a framework for understanding how primary care and behavioral health services can be integrated in routine practice. (J Am Board Fam Med 2015;28: S7-S20.)