START HERE

Find a useful place to begin.

Mental health belongs in the conversation wherever people receive medical care. Start with something you want to make possible. You do not need to know a billing code, choose a program or buy a book to begin learning.

FIND YOUR NEXT LESSON

What would you like to make possible?

Choose the situation closest to yours. Each choice gives you a useful first idea and a place to keep learning. You can explore more than one.

Find a clinical role and supervised experienceLimited-license clinicians and people changing roles
A possible starting point · fictional example

Jordan is exploring work with a medical practice. A job could include patient conversations, team discussion and paperwork. Those activities may have different supervision and experience-credit requirements.

  • Ask to walk through a typical week, not just read the job title.
  • Separate the work, supervision, experience hours, job terms and funding.
  • Establish which experience counts before relying on the role for your license.
Explore work and experience questions
Keep supervising and teachingSupervisors, educators and training partners
A possible starting point · fictional example

A supervisor and medical practice are considering a teaching partnership. They need a clear clinical role, time for supervision and a host team that can support the work.

  • Separate professional supervision from consultation and program leadership.
  • Name who provides teaching time, scheduling and day-to-day support.
  • A change in payment is not, by itself, a change in a professional license.
Explore a supervision partnership
Bring mental health into medical careMedical practices, pain clinics and care-team leaders
A possible starting point · fictional example

Sam wants to take part in family life while living with pain. The medical clinician and counselor have different responsibilities, but they can connect their work around that shared goal.

  • Begin with a patient need and a clear purpose for the support.
  • Show who receives a referral and who follows up.
  • Learn the team arrangement before exploring payment.
Follow Sam’s care-team story
Understand the payment responsibilitiesBilling, coding, credentialing and finance teams
A possible starting point · fictional example

A patient has a medical visit, a counseling appointment and care-manager follow-up. These activities need to be described separately before anyone chooses a billing arrangement.

  • Identify the exact plan, service and setting.
  • Separate the person doing the work from the proposed billing practitioner.
  • A job title or shared office does not establish a payable service.
Read the care and payment map
Build a service we can sustainPractice owners, managers and operational leaders
A possible starting point · fictional example

A practice wants to add follow-up support. Before hiring or forecasting revenue, the team describes the work, available staff time and what happens when someone is absent.

  • Include time for documentation, coordination and supervision.
  • Make funding assumptions visible rather than treating them as receipts.
  • Begin with a small service sketch that colleagues can discuss.
Try the free service sketch
Support residents across shiftsNursing homes, rehabilitation and residential-care teams
A possible starting point · fictional example

A resident’s worries are understood by one staff member but lost at the next shift. A shared plan needs to reflect the resident’s preferences and make the next responsible person clear.

  • Start with the resident’s concern and existing care team.
  • Distinguish the resident’s care from support provided to family members.
  • Explore the facility’s own responsibilities; office payment examples do not transfer automatically.
Explore whole-person care questions
Support families through a NICU stayNICU teams and family-support leaders
A possible starting point · fictional example

A parent is frightened and unsure whom to ask for support during an infant’s admission. The team can begin by making a clear introduction to the people already responsible for family support.

  • Identify whether a proposed service is for the parent, infant or family.
  • Build with the hospital’s existing team and appropriate expertise.
  • Keep the person’s care, records and responsibilities clear.
See the whole-person starting questions
Connect support during serious illnessHospice, palliative-care and serious-illness teams
A possible starting point · fictional example

A person and family have concerns about symptoms, uncertainty and daily life. The starting question is how emotional support connects with the medical, social and spiritual support already present.

  • Ask what matters to the person now.
  • Understand existing team roles before proposing another service.
  • Keep hospice and other care arrangements distinct when examining funding.
Explore a fuller view of care
Understand what a care team could do for usPatients, family members and caregivers
A possible starting point · fictional example

Rosa understands her medical plan but is worried about work and cannot easily reach the next appointment. Those concerns belong in a conversation about making the plan workable.

  • You can describe what is difficult without knowing the name of a service.
  • Ask who will contact you and what happens next.
  • Ask whom to contact if the next step does not happen.
Read Rosa’s whole-person care example
Teach, study or improve connected careEducators, researchers, associations and public-service leaders
A possible starting point · fictional example

A team wants to learn why referrals are not leading to appointments. A useful improvement question separates what the team has observed from the changes it hopes will help.

  • Describe the current experience clearly.
  • Distinguish a teaching example from evidence of an outcome.
  • Keep a research invitation separate from public learning and email permission.
Read how we use evidence

Start with the person.

The next lesson follows one fictional patient through the work of a connected team. Use it to imagine the possibilities in your own setting.

Meet the care team