Advancing Integrated Health Care Through Family, Systems, and Health: A Brief Report

Introduction: Despite continued efforts to substantiate models and measures, primary care organizations continue to struggle with the implementation of integrated health care (IHC). The incoming editors of Families, Systems, & Health (FSH), a peer-reviewed journal that promotes IHC, seek to define practical and applicable processes and structures that can be adopted to improve patients’ mental and behavioral health outcomes vis-a-vis IHC. This brief report assessed coverage of the IHC content areas in articles published in FSH between 2018 and 2023 and informs the coeditors next steps in adopting a framework focused on sustainable integration efforts. Method: To assess coverage, we conducted a rigorous and comprehensive analysis following the PSALSAR method. A total of 357 articles were analyzed and categorized across 15 thematic content areas operationalized according to the Lexicon for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration. Results: Findings showed that practice management (17.8%), family systems (14.6%), workforce development (13.2%), and diversity (13.2%) have been the most common content areas published in FSH. The least identified content areas included technology (5.6%), personal narratives (6.1%), and dissemination and implementation (7.4%). Conclusion: We recommend that FSH maintains its emphasis on practice management, workforce development, and related other topics informative to the effective practice(s) of IHC. Moving forward, we also encourage a more balanced pairing of these works with research regarding ways to organize and financially sustain said practice(s) effectively.