Introduction

The NC Center of Excellence for Integrated Care aims to integrate patients’ physical and behavioral health care, whether the care is delivered in an office or clinic, a hospital or mental health agency.

Deploying a small interdisciplinary team, the Center is a resource for assessment, training, and technical assistance to health care professionals and organizations. To assure that standards of care applied by the Center are broadly agreed upon and evidence-based, the Center works with stakeholders across North Carolina to determine best practices in clinical assessment, clinical tools, and techniques.

The ICARE Partnership is committed to creating a healthcare system that is Integrated, Collaborative, Accessible, Respectful, and Evidence-based by offering:

• Customized training based on the needs of providers
• Collaborative learning for groups of providers to allow them to test integrated care tools and techniques within their own quality assurance programs
• Technical assistance and troubleshooting to help providers initiate and implement integrated care techniques
• Resources for providers to investigate evidence-based tools and techniques in integrated care

The Center continues to support the goals expressed by Governor Perdue: to “establish the national model for an integrated approach to behavioral and primary health services for patients with mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse problems.”