Demand for mental health services in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and community clinics continues to grow, with record-breaking service numbers in 2023 and 2024.
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) defines these centers as “nonprofit, patient-governed organizations that provide high-quality, comprehensive primary health care to America’s medically underserved communities, serving all patients regardless of income or insurance status.” As a snapshot:
- In 2023, these facilities served 32.5 million Americans
- In 2024, the same number of people received this care
- One in ten people receive services from FQHCs and community clinics. In 2024, this included:
- 9.4 million children
- 3.8 million people over the age of 65
- 1.4 million people experiencing homelessness
- 419,000 veterans
These figures reflect the growing number of behavioral health issues in the United States. According to the National Library of Medicine, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):
- In 2019 and 2020, one in five adults, adolescents, and youth (totaling more than 50 million Americans) dealt with behavioral health issues
- In 2022, the number of adults reporting poor mental health for 14-plus days during the previous month jumped from 11.5 percent in 2013 to 14.1 percent
Clearly, a significant problem exists, and mental health professionals are incorporating multiple treatment types to provide help. They include integrated care models that the Healthy Minds Policy Initiative describes as an “umbrella term encompassing several models that combine physical health care with mental health and substance use care. These models aim to improve overall, whole-person health outcomes through coordinated, cohesive care carried out by a multidisciplinary team.”
One integrated care model type involves medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for people dealing with opioid use disorders, which focuses on a holistic treatment approach that combines targeted medication prescriptions with behavioral health counseling.
One key stumbling block to these approaches: standard primary care EHRs simply aren’t designed for these realities.
Why Primary Care EHRs Don’t Meet Mental Health Needs
Primary care visits tend to be regularly scheduled or occur in otherwise foreseeable patterns. Medical professionals enter data from these visits into structured templates and use straightforward insurance coding to record what took place at the primary care visit.
Said another way, primary care EHRs don’t capture the nuances required to describe mental health and behavioral health issues and recommended treatments effectively enough. Three of the gaps in traditional EHR systems when used by mental health providers include the following.
Inflexible Documentation Templates
As mentioned above, documentation templates for primary care are too rigid to capture the workflows for behavioral and mental health issues, which can include crisis interventions and multiple sign-offs for care.
Lack of Narrative Support for SOAP/DAP Notes
SOAP stands for “subjective, objective, assessment, and plan,” with this structure allowing mental health clinicians to include a patient’s feelings along with observable and factual information (perhaps how the patient dressed and how agitated their behavior appeared to be). Using these inputs, the professional assesses the current situation and develops the next steps of the treatment plan.
Primary care EHRs, unfortunately, don’t allow for this narrative flow. Nor do they work well for mental health professionals using the DAR (data, action, and response) charting system. This leads to poor integration with both crisis response and group therapy workflows.
Compliance Gaps
Compliance gaps may arise in areas such as 42 CFR Part 2, which focuses on confidentiality requirements for health records of people with substance use disorders. Additional gaps can occur in SAMHSA grant reporting or when coordinating care through multi-party treatment plans.
What Makes a Behavioral Health EHR System Different
A behavioral-first, mental health EHR system addresses challenges noted above, providing integrated care planning, real-time documentation, pre- and post-service workflows, and interoperability with health plans and social services. When a mental health EHR’s structure dovetails with behavioral health needs, this allows professionals to provide value-based care and helps to prevent the burnout that’s prevalent in the social services industry.
Netsmart vs. NextGen: Behavioral Health EHR Systems in Focus
Two mental health EHR systems to consider that provide behavioral health professionals with the tools they need include Netsmart and NextGen. Here’s a comparison.
Netsmart Mental Health EHRs
Netsmart offers a suite of behavioral health EHR platforms, including myAvatar and myEvolv, each designed for specific care environments and patient populations.
Netsmart’s myAvatar is a mental health EHR solution suite that’s specifically created for:
- Integrated care behavioral health clinics
- Addiction treatment organizations in community-based clinics
- Residential and inpatient programs
Focusing on recovery, myAvatar includes clinical decision support, real-time analytics, integrated operational and clinical workflows, and intuitive dashboards that help streamline decision-making.
Meanwhile, myEvolv aims to transform behavioral healthcare with this fully web-based and ONC-certified mental health EHR, designed for clinics that serve:
- Children and families
- Those with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- People on the autism spectrum
- Those dealing with behavioral health issues
Netsmart myEvolv’s straightforward evaluation tools provide real-time insights from anywhere.
Each of these solutions provide robust community integration tools and strong compliance handling. HealthTECH Resource has a full network of Netsmart EHR consultants to help your healthcare organization implement, integrate, and optimize this mental health EHR application.
NextGen Mental Health EHR
NextGen maintains a strong presence in FQHCs and community clinics with behavioral and medical workflows, including addiction treatments and human services, that facilitate integrated care delivery. In 2025, NextGen Behavioral Health won the top spot in the respected Best in KLAS report.
Healthcare organizations can leverage this whole-person care platform in outpatient, residential, and community care settings. Additional benefits of NextGen Behavioral Health include:
- Mobile documentation
- All-in-one reporting
- Seamless interoperability
- Revenue-generating solutions
Choosing the right NextGen EHR solution starts with understanding your organization’s unique goals, care model, and operational needs. At HealthTECH Resources, our experienced behavioral health EHR consultants take the time to understand your challenges and guide you toward the best-fit NextGen platform. Whether you’re optimizing an existing system or implementing from the ground up, we’re here to support you every step of the way.
Why Mental Health Providers Need Specialized EHR Consulting Support
Choosing the right behavioral health EHR system is a crucial step. Equally important is finding the right behavioral health EHR consulting partner. When the optimal system is chosen and strategically optimized, this:
- Avoids misconfigurations
- Reduces clinician burnout
- Ensures compliance
- Improves care delivery and reporting accuracy
Without the right consulting support, even the most advanced behavioral health EHR system can fall short—and HealthTECH Resource is the experienced go-to consultant for mental health EHRs for FQHCs, community health centers, and behavioral health providers.
The Right Behavioral Health EHR Strategy Starts With The Right Partner
Ultimately, FQHCs, community clinics, and other mental health organizations need more than a general EHR system. That’s because many fall short in areas such as:
- Inflexible documentation templates
- Lack of narrative support for SOAP/DAP notes
- Compliance gaps
Tailored EHR platforms—like those from NextGen and Netsmart—offer the flexibility, compliance support, and whole-person care tools mental health organizations depend on. Once the right platform is selected, partnering with experienced consultants like HealthTECH Resources ensures it’s configured, implemented, and optimized to meet your team’s real-world needs.
HealthTECH Resources Supports Behavioral Health EHR Success
Implementing a behavioral health EHR takes more than the right platform—it requires a partner who understands the unique challenges of mental health providers. At HealthTECH Resources, our consultants bring hands-on experience with both NextGen and Netsmart systems to support FQHCs, community clinics, and behavioral health organizations.
The following case study highlights how our team helped one organization successfully implement and optimize its EHR system to better serve their patients and streamline operations.
CASE STUDY:
Behavioral Health Clinical Workflow Enhancement at a Tribal Healthcare Facility
At a federally recognized tribal health center in the Southwest, HealthTECH Resources demonstrated the critical importance of specialized behavioral health EHR optimization within tribal healthcare settings. Our NextGen clinical application analyst worked closely with the facility’s director of behavioral health to address the unique documentation and workflow challenges faced by providers delivering substance abuse treatment and mental health services.
Tailoring Behavioral Health Templates to Unique Needs
The engagement focused on comprehensive behavioral health template customization that went beyond standard primary care configurations. Our analyst collaborated extensively with behavioral health providers to understand their specific clinical workflows, particularly around substance abuse treatment documentation requirements.
This collaborative approach resulted in modified NextGen templates that aligned with the facility’s unique clinical processes while maintaining compliance with behavioral health regulatory standards.
Key Enhancements and Compliance Focus
Key achievements included:
- Implementing flexible progress note formats that accommodate both SOAP and narrative documentation styles preferred by behavioral health clinicians
- Adding automated task functionality to behavioral health templates that reduced manual workarounds
- Optimizing treatment planning workflows to support multi-disciplinary care coordination.
The customizations also addressed the complex compliance requirements specific to behavioral health services, including 42 CFR Part 2 privacy protections and SAMHSA reporting standards.
Impact on Clinical Workflow and Care Delivery
This work exemplifies how purpose-built behavioral health EHR optimizations can transform clinical workflows for FQHCs and tribal healthcare organizations.
Rather than forcing behavioral health providers to adapt to primary care-focused templates, our approach recognized that effective behavioral health documentation requires specialized tools that reflect the reality of therapy sessions, crisis interventions, and comprehensive psychosocial assessments.
The result was improved provider efficiency, enhanced documentation quality, and better support for the integrated care model that modern FQHCs increasingly rely upon to serve their communities’ whole-person health needs.
Partner with Experts in Behavioral Health EHR Implementation
Empower your team with a behavioral health EHR system designed to enhance care, improve workflows, and ensure compliance. HealthTECH Resources brings deep expertise in NextGen and Netsmart to help you implement and optimize the right solution. Contact us or call (602) 903-7961 to connect with a consultant.
PRESIDENT/CEO AT HEALTHTECH RESOURCES
Larry has specialized in building strategic healthcare relationships for over 25 years, helping the nation’s top payors and providers solve some of their most pressing business challenges through an intelligent mix of staffing services, training, and consulting.