Working Together to Improve Mental Health Care in Our Community

In February, the El Paso Behavioral Health Consortium’s Integration Leadership Council hosted a Collaborative Care event featuring experts from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, including Roshni Koli, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Nicole Portrude, Director of Health System Implementation, and Sulamita Camargo, Senior Director of Finance. The session brought together physicians and insurance billing staff to discuss implementing the Collaborative Care Model—a proven, evidence-based approach to integrating behavioral health into pediatric and primary care settings.

Thanks to the advocacy of the Meadows Institute, reimbursement for Collaborative Care is becoming more accessible, making it more feasible for practices to adopt this impactful model. The model is a proven approach to preventing suicide, a leading cause of death for people ages 10-64. Dr. Koli has been an outspoken champion for integrated behavioral healthcare models, such as the Collaborative Care model, as a means of preventing suicide. Last June, Dr. Koli published a joint op-ed in STAT News with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s chief medical officer, Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, urging physicians, hospitals, and health systems to embrace this solution.

This event is part of a broader effort to support local provider practices through regular convenings, peer learning, and expert guidance. These gatherings foster collaboration among pediatric and primary care teams, offering practical tools and real-world examples to improve patient mental health care coordination.

During the February session, Meadows Institute experts shared implementation strategies, resource handouts, and direct support to help local champions begin integrating these improvements in their own settings. The slides from this event can be found here.

These opportunities are made possible with support from the Paso del Norte Health Foundation’s Disease Prevention and Management Priority Area. The session was organized in partnership with Dr. Sarah Martin and her team at Texas Tech Psychiatry and the Help Me Grow program team at the Paso del Norte Children’s Development Center.

Being part of the Behavioral Health Consortium means joining a committed network working to improve access, quality, and coordination of mental health care in our region.

For more information on the El Paso Behavioral Health Consortium, visit https://healthypasodelnorte.org/. For a link to Dr. Koll’s article on suicide prevention work, visit https://mmhpi.org/topics/announcements/the-bipartisan-issue-of-our-generation/. To learn more about the Health Foundation’s mental health priority area, visit pdnhf.org.