Cabinet Peaks Clinic introduces new behavioral health program

Cabinet Peaks Clinic has recently added an Integrated Behavioral Health Program, along with provider Elaine Maggi, Behavioral Health Consultant (BHC), to its Family Medicine Practice.

Integrated behavioral health care, or IBH, is an emerging field within the wider practice of high-quality, coordinated health care, according to Integration Academy.

In the broadest use of the term, IBH can describe any situation in which behavioral health and medical providers work together.

“IBH blends care in one setting for medical conditions and related behavioral health factors that affect health and well-being and is a rapidly emerging shift in the practice of high-quality health care,” stated Catherine McDonald, Clinic Administrator at Cabinet Peaks Clinics. “Providers practicing IBH recognize that both medical and behavioral health factors are important parts of a person’s overall health.”

In an IBH program, medical and behavioral health clinicians work together as a team to address a patient’s concerns. Care is delivered by these integrated teams in the primary care setting unless patients request or require specialty services. The advantage of these programs is better coordination and communication while working toward one set of overall health goals.

According to the American Hospital Association, the benefits of Integrated Care and integrating behavioral health in primary care provides the opportunity to improve health outcomes and patient experience without substantially increasing healthcare costs.

Elaine Maggi will serve as the Behavioral Health Consultant at Cabinet Peaks Clinic. The BHC role is a behavioral health provider who operates in a consultative role within a primary care team, utilizing and providing behavioral interventions, who provides recommendations regarding behavioral interventions to the referring primary care providers, and who conducts brief interventions with referred patients on behalf of the referring primary care provider.

According to Maggi, IBH aims to improve overall health outcomes for patients by improving access to efficient and effective behavioral health support within the primary care clinics.

“I look at IBH as a way to treat holistically with mind and body for wellness,” stated Maggi.”

Elaine completed her undergraduate at the University of Montana - Missoula and her Graduate Program at Walla Walla University.

She has worked in Alaska, South Carolina, and Montana as a Social Services provider and Psychotherapist.

She is familiar with the area having been born and raised in Troy, Montana.

For more information on the IBH program, please call Cabinet Peaks Clinic at 283-6850.