A common mistake that most people make is to assume that integrated care has the same connotation as integrative care. It is important to indeed define the difference between such two concepts. While integrated care is a relatively new concept, integrative care has been in practice for many years. The main difference is that integrative care is mildly adopted by professionals. As such, Integrative health care is mostly perceived as alternative medical practice. In other words, integrative care involves the adoption of physiotherapy, martial arts, herbal or natural medicine, and even acupuncture in the process of health care provision. On the other hand, integrated care is conventional and observes existing and evidence-based medical practices. Also, integrated care involves the collaboration between general practitioners and psychiatrists. In effect, the health care providers not only respond to the mental health but also the physical health of the patients. The provision of these services is within a facility and happens simultaneously. In the past, a patient had to consult a psychiatrist separately, after a visit to a general practitioner. It is, thus, clear that integrated health care is not experimental, but simply merges psychiatry to primary health care procedures (APA & APM, …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, many scholars agree that integrated care is a completely modern concept (Johri, Beland, & Bergman, 2003). Because it is a modern concept, it responds to existing challenges, in particular, the issue of population increase. Without a doubt, as the population increases, the number of those vulnerable to behavioral health complications also rises. If individuals with depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorder composed of only a fraction of the population in the past, this portion is likely to have increased over time. Moreover, health care experts have registered an increase in behavioral health complications. Within the traditional model, the pursuit of behavioral health remedies was at the discretion of the patients. For that reason, the patient had to shuttle between the health care facilities and psychiatric institution. This approach is no longer viable, because of the population increase. For instance, the traditional method requires that patients with behavioral health issues privately visit the psychiatrists. With the rise in population, such approach is no longer