Behavioral Health/Integrated Services

Your Health Center is making available to you a whole array of services which can add greatly to your health and well-being. We have experienced LCSWs (Maine Licensed Clinical Social Worker) who have been trained to diagnose and treat the wide variety of personal or family problems that we all sometimes experience. Problems range from struggles to adjust, anxiety or panic attacks, depression, family communication issues, and even alcohol or other substance abuse issues.

How it works:

Anytime the center is open, your doctor has access to these professionals for consultation and can easily assist you in obtaining needed counseling services. These services are implemented using a team approach – your doctor stays involved and aware of any and all treatment actions. If you are experiencing family or personal problems, a good first step would be to talk with your doctor about it. They can participate directly (we call it a “warm handoff”) in introducing you to an appropriate counselor and making a plan to try to address these issues. Hundreds of people each week are seen at this clinic and we feel like it really makes a difference to the patients and to the community.

Our counselors approach you and your problems in a “solution focused “way. We all know that the best and most effective care begins by having a mutually respectful and positive relationship with your providers. They will want to get to know you, your situation, and your family. They will work with you to identify what changes need to occur and what best tools, resources, or resource people are available to help you make things better in your life.

If medications are necessary, your doctor and his team of providers have access to a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (someone licensed to know and prescribe the special medications to help people with mental and emotional issues). We like to think and talk about interventions, joining you in your life briefly to solve a problem and then stepping back and waiting to be called on once again, if and when new problems arise.

So as you can see, integration here at BRHC simply means teamwork. Medical science has learned that we need to do more than treat the physical body, we need to think about the whole person and be ready, as a team, to offer you help in all the ways that people sometimes need it. Our Behavioral Health staff are positive, energetic, diverse, and ready for your doctor to match them to your needs.