Tai M. Paquin, LMSW, LADAC

Why Champions Matter in BH2I

Establishing behavioral health integration takes more than workflows and screening tools. It also takes people across the organization who believe in the work and helps keep it moving day to day. For BH2I grantees, champions can play an important role in strengthening teamwork, building consistency, and helping integrated care become part of everyday practice.

A behavioral health integration champion is someone who helps move integrated care forward in daily practice. Champions do not need formal leadership titles. They may be providers, nurses, behavioral health clinicians, care coordinators, clinic managers, or others who help turn integration from an idea into a routine part of care.

What champions do may look different from one program to the next. In a site that is still building its integration model, a champion may help strengthen communication between medical and behavioral health staff, support referrals, or reinforce the value of whole-person care. In a more established program, a champion may focus on improving warm handoffs, mentoring peers, supporting case consultation, or helping the team think about sustainability. The role should also fit the program’s current capacity and needs.

Champions are not always the people with the biggest titles. More often, they are the people their peers trust, those who help bridge the gap between a good idea and what actually happens in day-to-day care. In medical and behavioral health settings, champions may:

  • Model how to talk with patients about behavioral health in a routine, non-stigmatizing way
  • Normalize warm handoffs and collaborative case review
  • Help staff understand what should happen after a positive screening
  • Notice when a workflow is creating frustration and bring forward ideas for improvement
  • Encourage collaboration when communication between teams begins to slip
  • Remind the team that behavioral health is part of whole-person care, not separate from it

One of the most important things to remember is that a program does not need to wait until it has “full integration” to build champions. A smaller or developing program may start with one medical champion and one behavioral health champion—or even one person willing to help bridge the work, if staffing is very limited. A more established program may be ready to identify champions across several roles, such as primary care, behavioral health, nursing, and case management.

What matters most is not whether every grantee has the same number of champions or the same level of infrastructure. What matters is having people in the organization who can help move integrated care forward from where the program stands today.

Helping Champions Grow in Your Program

Focus on influence, not title

The best champion is not always the person highest in rank. Look for individuals who are respected by peers, open to collaborating, and interested in improving patient care. In some clinics, a nurse, medical assistant, or case manager may be in a position to influence daily practices and be a cheerleader for BH2I.

Define a realistic role

Champion responsibilities should match the program’s stage and staffing reality. In a developing program, champions may help reinforce workflows and connect the right people to solve problems. In a more developed program, they may take on peer mentoring, workflow review, quality improvement, or sustainability planning. The role should feel meaningful, but manageable.

Create opportunities for champions to connect

Even informal check-ins can help. Some programs may be ready for a recurring integration workgroup or champion huddle. Others may simply set aside time during an existing clinical team meeting to discuss barriers, successes, and next steps. The goal is to create a space where champions can share what they are seeing and help move the work forward together.

Use data and stories that fit your stage

Programs at any level can support champions with simple information. Early-stage programs may benefit from sharing screening rates, referral counts, or examples of successful collaboration. More mature programs may use patient stories, follow-up data, or workflow measures to identify where refinement is needed. The data does not need to be complicated, they just need to help staff see progress, gaps, and opportunities.

Looking Ahead

For BH2I grantees in Years 3–5, building champions is not only about staff engagement; it is also about making integration more resilient over time. Champions can help programs maintain progress through staff turnover, competing demands, and the uncertainty that can come in the later years of grant implementation.

Most importantly, the champion model can be adapted to where each grantee is right now. Some programs may be building their first cross-disciplinary relationships. Others may be refining a more mature model and planning for sustainability beyond the grant. In either case, identifying the people who can support whole-person care, encourage their peers, and keep integration moving forward can make a meaningful difference. Integrated care is stronger when it belongs to the whole team.

Bibliography

Morena AL, Gaias LM and Larkin C (2022) Understanding the Role of Clinical Champions and Their Impact on Clinician Behavior Change: The Need for Causal Pathway Mechanisms. Front. Health Serv. 2:896885. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2022.896885

Santos, W. J., Graham, I. D., Lalonde, M., Demery Varin, M., & Squires, J. E. (2022). The effectiveness of champions in implementing innovations in health care: a systematic review. Implementation science communications, 3(1), 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-022-00315-0