“There has been a sea change in attitudes,” said Garrett Moran, who directs an academy on the integration of behavioral health and primary care for the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “If we are going to bend the cost curve, the integration of behavioral health care and physical health care is essential.”

Moran said the old model—simply referring patients with mental illness to a primary-care doctor—doesn’t work. Instead, the patients need close, coordinated monitoring by both providers.

The increased collaboration is driven in part by the Affordable Care Act, which made more people eligible for mental-health services and funding for improving coordination of care.

The integration of physical and mental health was declared a priority by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which has awarded $150 million in grants for that purpose since 2009. The grants are specifically intended to bring medical services into mental-health clinics.

Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of bringing behavioral services into primary-care practices. But there isn’t as much research on doing it the other way around, as in the case of San Fernando Mental Health Center.

A review by the RAND Corporation of 56 such programs around the country showed that patients who received primary care at mental-health sites had better diabetes and hypertension control. People with obesity and those who smoked did not show improvement.

So far nearly 190 organizations have received one of the federal grants. They include groups such as LifeStream Behavioral Center in Florida, the Institute for Family Health in New York, and Tarzana Treatment Centers in Southern California.

The Institute for Family Health focuses on promoting healthy behavior among people with severe mental illness. Medical assistants offer wellness coaching, while primary-care providers help patients stop smoking and lose weight, said Virna Little, a senior vice president for the institute.

“If you are anxious and using smoking as a coping mechanism, [providers] really have to address the anxiety as well as the smoking cessation and education,” Little said.

Linda Rosenberg, the president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, said it’s often difficult for people with mental illnesses to get to a physician. They may be poor, homeless, or live chaotic lives. The mental illness itself may thwart their motivation.

“The best place to get their physical health care is the place where they are getting psychiatric care,” Rosenberg said. “They want the same things we do—they want convenience.”

The council assists organizations that want to coordinate health care. Often, Rosenberg said, integration starts with placing the primary care and mental-health providers in the same office. But it can’t stop there: To have an impact, they need to plan and deliver care in a coordinated way, she said.