Inside Look: Behavioral Health Integration – Children and Youth Collaborative Learning Exchange
Launched October 2024, the Behavioral Health Integration – Children and Youth Collaborative Learning Exchange (BHI – CYCLE) was a nine-month learning collaborative that brings together organizations experienced in integrating behavioral health services into primary care for children and youth.
Collaborative Objectives
By its conclusion July 2025, the collaborative improved behavioral health integration for children and youth served by leading provider organizations by:
- Showcasing successful practices and highlighting solutions through a vibrant network of peer organizations
- Sprouting adoption of new solutions addressing real-world challenges that improve the delivery of pediatric and adolescent integrated behavioral health care
- Sharing best practices through a public toolkit that synthesizes collaborative participants’ recommendations, experience and contributions to the field
Collaborative Objectives
In March 2025, six participating organizations from BHI – CYCLE convened at Rady Children’s Health for a one-day site visit.
Watch the videos below to hear from participating organizations and learn why integrating behavioral health for children in California is essential.
Altamed Health Services — FQHC in Los Angeles and Orange Counties
“Every clinic has a different culture that we serve and really making sure that we’re meeting needs and so I think really identifying champions and figuring out the need and dealing with whatever specific challenges are present.”
Children’s Hospital of Orange County — health system providing inpatient and outpatient services across Southern California
“One of the biggest challenges with our integrated primary care program has been sustainability and billing, just being able to bill appropriately for the services that we’re providing, being able to sustain our program, and being able to grow.”
LifeLong Medical Care — FQHC with locations in Alameda and Contra Costa counties
“BHI-CYCLE has been really helpful, as we try to grow our pediatric behavioral health presence. Our pediatric therapists have told us that they just need more clinical support.”
Providence Medical Group (Northern California) — network spanning Sonoma, Napa and Humboldt counties
“I just believe integrated care is the best way to provide care for our children and families.”
San Francisco Health Network — multi-site FQHC and part of San Francisco’s public health system
“BHI – CYCLE has been really valuable so far. Having other organizations who are doing this work to learn from because most of the integrated models of care at this time are really adult focused and have not been pediatric focused and so we’ve really wanted to engage with others doing the same work to see how they were doing it.”
Rady Children’s Health served as the programs subject matter expert. Sharing extensively about their primary care behavioral/mental health integration program which launched in 2020 and provides evidence-based mental health care through embedding mental health clinicians in pediatric primary care practices for easy, same-day access.
Anne Bird, M.D., Medical Director, Rady Children’s Health | Clinical Professor, UC San Diego Health
“Our mission is really to restore, to sustain, and to enhance the health of children as well as their developmental potential, and we do that through excellence in care, in research, in education, and in advocacy.”
Nicole Carr-Lee, PsyD, Director of Clinical Operations and Integration, Rady Children’s Health
“it’s really really important to start off with making sure that you have buy in from all the various stakeholders that are gonna be involved so that’s from the families, that’s from the front desk teams that’s from the providers all across the board, really making sure that people are trained. And they understand the purpose and the reason that’s gonna ensure you have success all along the way”
Hilary Bowers, MD, FAAP, Director of Behavioral and Mental Health Services, Children’s Primary Care Medical Group
“Our goal is great humans. That’s really our goal is how can we have humans who have value in their like who are able to give to others who are able to receive in a healthy way. And to know a few sessions of learning some skills and then their whole trajectory is different.”
Peter Robertson, Senior Director, Practice Transformation, CQC
“The core of what everything that CQC does is to bring stakeholders together with a common goal, a common purpose, and to recognize that there are folks who maybe have further along in the journey, you may be just starting this journey, but you’ve got lessons and perspective to share with one another.”
Kristina Mody, Director, Practice Transformation, CQC
“It’s challenging work and not always clear what the path forward is but we know that these services are key and help improve the lives for young patients and their families so we want those organizations that do it to keep going.”