The 40-year-old man didnt want rehabilitation.

He knew he had a drinking problem, knew if he kept drinking nearly a case of beer a day it would kill him. But he wasnt ready to quit.

So psychologist Suzanne Bailey waited. And waited.

A typical doctor probably wouldnt have waited so long -- more than a year -- for the man to be ready for substance abuse treatment, but Bailey isnt a typical doctor.

As a member of an integrated health care team in Knoxville, Tennessee, she is charged with treating the bodies and the minds of some of her communitys most desperate and poverty-stricken residents.

She works for a Cherokee Health Systems clinic that combines the expertise of behavioral health specialists, accustomed to addressing mental health issues like depression and bipolar disorder, with primary care physicians.

With 57 clinical sites in 14 Tennessee counties, Cherokee Health is one of the largest integrated health care providers in America, and a health care initiative to be launched in January in Lincoln is expected to be built partially on Cherokee's integrated approach to health care.

Nonprofit health providers Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska and the Peoples Health Center plan to combine operations to form the Health 360 Clinic, which is expected to open in December 2015 in the former OfficeMax building at 23rd and O streets.

On Jan. 12, the two nonprofits will open a smaller integrated clinic in Lutheran Family Services offices at 2201 S. 17th St. That smaller clinic will be open until the larger one opens, when Lutheran Family Services plans to move into the space at 23rd and O as well.

By the end of 2015, the Health 360 Clinic will have one physician, one nurse practitioner and one nurse practitioner/physician assistant. Organizers are expecting 20,000 medical patient visits and 12,000 behavioral health visits within the first three years.

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Integrated health care a growing movement