Recent trends have emerged that focus on developing strategies for integrating behavioral health services into medical care settings, prompting heightened interest in articulating specific models for integrated care. The biopsychosocial complexity of HIV disease has resulted in efforts to integrate HIV-related mental health services with medical treatment as part of an overarching continuum of care concept. Lessons learned from these efforts have the potential to contribute significantly to informing current deliberations regarding how to go about integrating mental health care with medical care in general medical settings. With the hope of contributing to the professional dialogue in this area, this article presents a detailed account of a comprehensive HIV mental health services program that is integrated with HIV/AIDS medical care. The program provides services for a traditionally underserved client population in a community-based urban setting. After elucidating the conceptual foundations of the program, key strategies for program implementation are described in detail. Finally, drawing upon the experiences and lessons learned from implementation of this integrated HIV mental health services model, the article concludes with an outline of specific implications for the evolving discussion regarding how best to integrate behavioral health services into general medical care settings.
Keywords: HIV, AIDS, mental health services, services integration, health psychologyRecent years have witnessed an increasing focus on articulating ways to integrate behavioral health with primary care services (e.g., Auxier, Farley, & Seifert, 2011). Integrated care models based conceptually on a whole person perspective of health and illness (e.g., the patient centered medical home) are garnering attention both because of their clinical promise and their potential to contribute to the cost effectiveness of primary care (Runyon, 2011). As the trend toward integrated care approaches continues to unfold, there is a pressing need to elaborate specific frameworks of care. Lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS health care arena can inform these efforts, since the biopsychosocial complexity of HIV disease has long challenged HIV/AIDS providers to conceptualize care delivery in the context of a coordinated continuum of health services (Treisman & Angelino, 2004;Winiarski, 1997 MAGDALENE YONKER received her BA degree in psychology from Clark Atlanta University. She is a case manager in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine. She specializes in case management services for individuals with co-occurring mental health concerns and chronic illness, with a focus on HIV/AIDS. SANJAY SHARMA received his MD degree from Emory University and completed a psychiatry residency in the