Select and justify a behavioural health integration model suited to the local care setting.
Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Management
Behavioural Health Service Line Design and Integration
Design an integrated behavioural health service line: select an integration model, build stepped care and crisis pathways, model workforce and measurement-based care, and structure value-based financing.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Behavioural health demand routinely outpaces specialist capacity, and services that bolt a counsellor onto primary care without a stepped structure end up rationing access by waiting list rather than by need. Service line leaders need a model that matches integration depth to local workforce, routes patients through defined steps of care, and includes crisis response and co-occurring disorder coordination as core functions rather than afterthoughts. This course compares co-location, collaborative care and fully integrated models, then builds a stepped care pathway with clear escalation and step-down criteria. Crisis sessions cover mobile crisis teams, stabilisation units and standardised suicide risk screening with individualised safety planning. Workforce sessions model staffing across psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinicians and peer support roles, alongside measurement-based care using validated symptom tools and telebehavioural health protocols. The course closes with parity compliance and financing: auditing benefit design for non-quantitative treatment limitations and structuring a value-based contract with defined quality metrics. Exercises use constructed caseloads and service line data, not named organisations.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Design a stepped care pathway with defined escalation and step-down criteria.
Build a crisis response system spanning triage, mobile teams and stabilisation services.
Apply standardised suicide risk screening and safety planning across clinical settings.
Model a behavioural health workforce that combines specialist, peer and task-shared roles.
Implement measurement-based care and telebehavioural health protocols that track outcomes.
Audit benefit design for parity compliance and structure a value-based financing contract.
Who Should Attend
Behavioural health service line directors and programme managers.
Primary care medical directors planning integrated behavioural health services.
Crisis service coordinators designing mobile crisis and stabilisation programmes.
Psychiatric and psychology workforce planners in health systems or payers.
Care managers coordinating treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions.
Payer and provider contracting staff negotiating value-based behavioural health agreements.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Service Line Strategy and Integration Model
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Selecting a Behavioural Health Integration Model
- Compare co-location, collaborative care and fully integrated models against local workforce and referral patterns.
- Define the psychiatric consultant and care manager roles within a collaborative care team structure.
- Map current referral leakage from primary care to behavioural health to quantify the integration case.
- Draft a service line charter that defines scope, target population and success metrics.
Session 2Stepped Care Pathway Design
- Design a stepped care pathway that escalates from self-management to specialist care by severity.
- Set entry and exit criteria for each step using validated severity thresholds.
- Coordinate warm handoff procedures between primary care and behavioural health clinicians.
- Establish caseload review meetings that reassign patients between steps as symptoms change.
02Crisis Services and Risk Management
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Crisis Response System Design
- Design a crisis response system spanning telephone triage, mobile crisis teams and stabilisation units.
- Define dispatch criteria and law enforcement co-response protocols for high-risk crisis calls.
- Establish diversion pathways from emergency departments to community-based crisis stabilisation.
- Set staffing and response time targets for mobile crisis team coverage areas.
Session 2Suicide Risk Screening and Safety Planning
- Apply a standardised suicide risk screening tool across clinical settings and referral points.
- Draft individualised safety plans that identify warning signs, coping strategies and emergency contacts.
- Train non-behavioural-health staff to recognise risk indicators and initiate warm handoffs.
- Audit follow-up contact rates after a crisis episode or emergency department discharge.
03Workforce, Measurement and Technology
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Behavioural Health Workforce Modelling
- Model workforce requirements across psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinicians and nurse practitioners.
- Design supervision structures for peer support specialists integrated into clinical teams.
- Address recruitment and retention barriers specific to behavioural health licensure and reimbursement.
- Plan task-sharing arrangements that extend specialist capacity through trained non-specialist providers.
Session 2Measurement-Based Care and Telebehavioural Health
- Implement measurement-based care using validated symptom scales to track treatment response.
- Build clinical dashboards that flag non-responders for treatment plan review.
- Design a telebehavioural health protocol that addresses consent, privacy and emergency escalation.
- Evaluate telehealth versus in-person outcomes to guide modality selection by patient need.
04Governance, Parity and Financing
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Co-occurring Disorder Care Coordination
- Coordinate care for co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions across separate provider networks.
- Design shared treatment planning processes between addiction and mental health clinicians.
- Address common medication interaction and monitoring requirements in dual-diagnosis treatment.
- Establish case conferencing routines for complex co-occurring disorder cases.
Session 2Parity Compliance and Value-Based Financing
- Audit service line benefit design against applicable mental health parity requirements.
- Identify non-quantitative treatment limitations that may create parity compliance risk.
- Structure a value-based behavioural health contract with defined quality and outcome metrics.
- Model the financial case for integration using avoided emergency and inpatient utilisation.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
Complete your registration
We will contact you within one business day to confirm.
Ready to start?
Reserve your seat and start building the skill.