TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 3-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 3 315 treating the patient). It comes as no surprise that PCPs feel more supported when BHCs are an available part of the medical team. Third, BHCs can generate top-down support through billing for group visits such as drop-in group medical appointments and 30-minute follow-up visits (Robinson & Reiter, 2016). Finally, grants represent another potential source of funding for behavioral health implementation (HRSA, 2017, 2018). HRSA and SAMHSA have been a tremendous resource in providing training grants specifically aimed at increasing the BHC workforce (e.g., HRSA, 2017) and addressing the nation’s opioid epidemic (e.g., HRSA, 2018). In Texas, the Hogg Foundation has provided training grants for training future BHCs. Finally, the counseling profession must continue advocacy efforts toward establishing licensed counselors as Medicare providers. With this key change, licensed counselors would be more readily employable in medical settings (Dormond &Afayee, 2016). Conclusion Primary care has been the de facto mental health system in the United States for decades. Providing comprehensive primary care to patients is imperative, and in order to do this well, our workforce needs to be equipped to meet the growing behavioral health needs where patients show up to receive care. Given clinical measures such as successful patient outcomes and CACREP accreditation standards targeting integrated health care knowledge, it behooves counselor training programs to consider developing models for BHC training. This article presents the key aspects of the PITCH program in the hopes that our model will be useful to other counselor education programs as the profession moves toward integrated practice models in order to meet the ever-changing needs of the health care landscape. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure PITCH is funded by a Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. There is no known conflict of interest. References Berwick, D. M., Nolan, T. W., & Whittington, J. (2008). The triple aim: Care, health, and cost. Health Affairs , 27 (3), 759–769. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.27.3.759 Canada, K. E., Freese, R., & Stone, M. (2018). Integrative behavioral health clinic: A model for social work practice, community engagement, and in vivo learning. Journal of Social Work Education , 54 (3), 464–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2018.1434442 Center for Health Workforce Studies. (2016). Rapid cycle quality improvement resource guide. http://www. healthworkforceta.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/RCQI_Resource_Guide.pdf Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. (2016). CACREP accreditation manual . Cunningham, P. J. (2009). Beyond parity: Primary care physicians’ perspectives on access to mental health care. Health Affairs , 28 (Suppl. 1), 490–501. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.3.w490 Davis, M. J., Moore, K. M., Meyers, K., Mathews, J., & Zerth, E. O. (2016). Engagement in mental health treatment following primary care mental health integration contact. Psychological Services , 13 (4), 333– 340. http://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000089 deGruy, F. V. (2015). Integrated care: Tools, maps, and leadership. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine , 28 (Suppl. 1), S107–S110. https://doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.2015.S1.150106