With too few mental health providers, more patients turn to primary care [Video]

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It took one cancer patient 15 years ago to convince Barbara Chapman that the model of mental health treatment needed some serious work.

It was 2009, and she was an advanced practice nurse working in a Dallas primary care practice when she met a female patient diagnosed with breast and lung cancer. The same woman had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The woman didn’t have health insurance, but Chapman was determined to help her navigate the medical system for both cancer and mental health treatment. After several weeks, Chapman was able to find a place that would treat her physical and mental illnesses.

“I made a promise to her that I would do everything in my power to make sure nobody had to go through that again,” Chapman said.

That seminal experience …