When you get your annual physical, does your primary care physician ask if you’ve been feeling atypically sad or anxious lately? Primary care doctors are often the first professional a person will tell about symptoms related to depression or other mental health issues. With this in mind, two Pennsylvania counselors

H olistic care, or the integration of primary and behavioral health care along with other health care services, is becoming more common. In my experience as a mental health and chemical dependency counselor in an integrated care site, I have come to value the benefits that such wraparound services offer.

Take a moment to imagine the following scene, with you as the protagonist: A few days ago, you woke, went for a run, had breakfast and headed to work, where you attended a committee meeting. The next thing you remember is lying in a hospital bed and being told that

By the time the 43-year-old man, a victim of an industrial accident, limped into American Counseling Association member David Engstrom’s office, he’d been experiencing lower back pain for 10 years and taking OxyContin for six. The client, whose pain was written in the grimace on his face as he sat

People with common medical disorders who visit their primary care physicians have high rates of behavioral health concerns, including diabetes, chronic pain, obesity, sleep disorders and heart disease. Obesity is one of the biggest drivers of preventable chronic diseases and health care costs in the United States. Currently, estimates for

Nearly half of the cigarettes consumed in the United States are smoked by people dealing with a mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The federal agency says that rates of smoking are disproportionately higher — a little more than double — among those diagnosed