The Primary Behavioral Health Integrated Care Training Academy is a two-day, peer-to-peer training program that takes participants through the details of the Cherokee Health System clinical model, as well as the administrative, operational, financial, and collaborative aspects of the practice.  Cherokee Health Systems has administered an integrated primary care/behavioral health model for over 30 years and actively shares these experiences and processes with their safety net colleagues across the country interested in integrating care into their clinics.  Cherokee’s blended behavioral health and primary care clinical model has embedded a behavioral health consultant on the primary care team; provides real-time behavioral and psychiatric consultations to the primary care providers; is a focused behavioral health intervention in primary care; offers a behavioral medicine scope of practice; encouragespatient responsibility for healthful living; and is a behaviorally enhanced healthcare home. 

As both a Federally Quality Health Care Center and a Community Mental Health Center, Cherokee Health Systems knows of the opportunities and challenges that face both the primary and mental health sectors.  It is a real-world model taught in a peer-to-peer method by professionals who deliver the model every day.  This two-day training program is available and applicable to participants from any state and takes them through the details of the Cherokee Health System clinical model, instructions for implementation, administration oversight, practitioner case studies, financing information, and team consultation.  In addition, staffing workflows are discussed including topics such as operations, scheduling, access, documentation, and administrative and clinical team meetings.