Integrated treatment is the best path forward

During my time as a government regulator, we were constantly in search of the best way to ensure that those who need both addiction and mental health treatment receive it. Too often the preferred approach was to bring addiction and mental health services into primary care settings. This is one approach, but it cannot be the only approach as it has not succeeded in meaningful ways, primarily because it ignores the reality that many folks who receive addiction and mental health treatment will not go to the primary care settings they are referred to. They go where they are comfortable, which was often to their addiction and mental health treatment provider.