Co-locations, joint sites, joint assessments and joint treatment plans are examples of this new collaboration. Out-stationing mental health professionals in the emergency rooms in hospitals can integrate the behavioral health care and physical medical care. Psychiatric nurses in the city jail performing pre-arraignment screenings can divert individuals into the mental health system as opposed to the correctional system. Counselors stationed at the desk of social services in high schools solves the problem of contacting potential clients. Frequently the first warning signs of a child with severe emotional disturbance appears in the schools.
Mental health can join with other public agencies in site visits to migrant populations.
Some examples that work include using existing facilities, with minor changes and using night staff as necessary-not necessarily 24 hours. Mental health and mental retardation in one program shared after-hours location and staff, where mental health was using someone else's building and a staff person paid for by two different agencies. In another example, a large nursing home is now used for brain injury cases while one of the houses is a children's unit with 24 hour staff on campus. Unfortunately, existing programs and staff are often resistant to integration. In one Rocky Mountain state, counties were given the opportunity by the state legislature to restructure at the local level.