Behavioral health integration and guidance (BHIG) initiative

The BHIG Initiative empowers your practice to support youth with low- to moderate-acuity mental and behavioral health needs. This is a no-cost program that is designed to help primary care providers make life better for many children in Texas.

Around 600,000 children in Texas have mental health care needs. Primary care providers generally refer patients to psychiatrists and other specialists for treatment. But it can take months to get an appointment, prolonging a child’s suffering and potentially making their symptoms worse.

The Behavioral Health Integration and Guidance (BHIG) Initiative at Children’s Health℠ is working to close this gap in care by empowering primary care providers to support youth who have low- to moderate-acuity mental health needs.

BHIG offers continuing education for primary care providers, equipping them to treat conditions like anxiety, stress and depression. This paves the way for a more proactive and preventive approach to mental health care and aims to give children and young adults the mental health support they need, faster.

Providers benefit from:

  • Continuing education on a wide range of topics. BHIG has designed 20 30-minute modules covering various mental health topics. All training is online and can be done on a provider’s own schedule. In addition, providers are encouraged to attend the 5, 90-minute, small group, case conference virtual meetings interspersed with the computer modules to discuss real case questions and learn from their peers for an additional 7.5 continuing education credits. 

  • Visit the BHIG Clinic or receive a live case consultation. The BHIG clinic is located in South Dallas and welcomes visitors to see how our pediatrician, skilled in providing behavioral health in primary care, intervenes with patients. Treat your patient in your office, and have our pediatrician connect virtually to your visits to ask questions and suggest interventions as part of your care.

  • Positioning providers to offer reimbursable care via the collaborative care model. Amidst the shift to collaborative, integrated care, this program is built to enable primary care providers to provide mental health care as a billable service.   

  • Being part of a supportive community. When you take part in this program, you’ll join a community of providers across the area and gain access to the BHIG website of  resource materials and clinical algorithms to assist in treating your patients.

  • Availability of a child psychiatrist. After completing the training, you will be able to manage your patients with mild to moderate behavioral health disorder. Patients requiring services with a child psychiatrist can be referred to BHIG for an in-person or virtual visit following a CPAN consultation and recommendation. The BHIG child psychiatrist will provide a diagnostic assessment and work with you to develop a treatment plan which may include continued psychiatric care for stabilization. The BHIG child psychiatrist will only work with patients referred from primary care providers who are part of the BHIG community to assure accessibility for new patients. Once patients are psychiatrically stabilized, the patient will be returned to you for ongoing follow up care integrated with their primary care.

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