Internal Behavioral Consultant
What is The Internal Behavioral Consultation Service?
The Internal Behavioral Consultation Service is available to you in your Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) as a part of your comprehensive health care. The service offers help when stress, worry, or emotional concerns about physical or other life problems interfere with your daily life.
Who is The Internal Behavioral Consultant?
What Problems Can They Help Me With?
The IBC is a psychologist, social worker or psychiatric nurse practitioner specially trained to work as a member of your PCMH team. This team approach allows the PCMH team and patients to consider physical, behavioral, and emotional aspects of health.
For example, the IBC can help you develop plans for smoking cessation or other lifestyle changes. They can also help you with a variety of other concerns such as difficulties with your family or relationship, grief, excess stress, depression, anxiety, or anger.
How is this Service Different from Behavioral Health?
The IBC simply adds another facet to your complete health care. You are seen directly in the PCMH, and the IBC will not provide traditional psychotherapy. If you request it, or the IBC thinks you would benefit from it, he or she will work with your provider to enter a referral to specialty behavioral health services for you. Another difference from specialty behavioral health care is that your IBC will document the assessment and recommendations in your outpatient medical record. He or she will not document in a separate behavioral health record. Rather, the documentation will be part of your outpatient medical record, with the same degree of confidentiality as other information in your outpatient medical record.
What Should I Expect When I See the IBC?
Your IBC will ask you specific questions about your physical symptoms, the emotional concerns you are experiencing, your behaviors, and how all of these might be related.
Your IBC will make every effort to protect your privacy and confidentiality, consistent with military and federal regulations. However, your IBC will share information with your PCM and other members of your health care team. Additionally, like all providers, they must report information from any active duty patient that could have a negative impact on our mission.
Your appointments should last no longer than about 30 minutes. Your IBC will share with you brief, solution-focused skills and techniques that might help you feel better. You will be seen by the IBC in this clinic. This makes it easy for you and easy for the IBC! You can expect your IBC to have a close working relationship with your primary medical provider. Remember: your primary care manager is in charge of your health care. The IBHC’s main job is to help create the best integrated health care plan for YOU!