Herzing University BH700 Foundations of Integrated Behavioral Health: Course Guide

Updated on: Oct 7, 2026 

BH700 is a 3.0-credit doctoral course at Herzing University that introduces learners to the concepts, models, and systems that support integrated behavioral health within healthcare settings. According to the BH700 syllabus, the course has no prerequisites and covers the historical development of integrated care, interprofessional roles, biopsychosocial and population health frameworks, and the ethical, cultural, policy, and regulatory considerations that shape behavioral health delivery today.

This guide breaks down what BH700 covers, how the eight units are organized, how the 1,000-point grading structure works, and which assessments carry the most weight. It is built directly from the BH700 syllabus so you can understand the course structure without repeatedly digging through separate university materials.

What Is Herzing University BH700?

BH700, Foundations of Integrated Behavioral Health, is a doctoral-level course that establishes the conceptual foundation for later coursework involving behavioral health integration. According to the BH700 syllabus, the course introduces core concepts, terminology, and principles, then builds toward the historical models, interprofessional structures, and population-level frameworks that define how behavioral health is delivered inside broader healthcare systems.

There is no prerequisite listed for BH700, which means the course is designed to bring learners from varied clinical and academic backgrounds to a shared baseline before more specialized doctoral coursework.

BH700 Course Overview

The course purpose, per the syllabus, is to introduce doctoral learners to the models, systems, and interprofessional structures that support integrated behavioral health. The major subject areas include the history and development of integrated care, the roles of interprofessional care teams, biopsychosocial and population health frameworks, and the ethical, cultural, policy, and regulatory factors that affect how behavioral health services are delivered and evaluated.

The relationship between integrated behavioral health and broader healthcare systems runs through the entire course. Rather than treating behavioral health as a separate service line, BH700 frames it as a component that is measured, regulated, staffed, and improved alongside the rest of a healthcare organization. That framing carries through the unit sequence, from workforce roles in Unit 1 to quality measurement and technology in Unit 5.

BH700 Course Learning Objectives

The BH700 syllabus identifies six course learning objectives. Here is what each one means for your coursework.

1. Core concepts, terminology, and principles of integrated behavioral health. This objective sets the vocabulary you will use throughout the doctoral program. Discussions and assignments in Units 1 and 2 assume familiarity with terms like integrated care, behavioral health workforce, and the goals of integration.

2. Historical development and major integrated-care models. Unit 2 traces how integrated care evolved and introduces the models students are expected to reference when discussing implementation. This objective matters because later assignments, including the Unit 2 Proposal, ask you to situate your topic within an established model rather than describing integration in the abstract.

3. Roles, responsibilities, and scopes of practice within interprofessional care teams. Unit 3 addresses interprofessional education and collaboration directly. This objective is central to the Annotated Bibliography assignment, where you build a literature base around how different professionals function within a shared care team.

4. Biopsychosocial and population-health frameworks. Unit 4 applies these frameworks to complex cases and social determinants of health. This objective connects clinical-level thinking (the biopsychosocial model) to system-level thinking (population health), which is a distinction the syllabus expects students to keep straight.

5. Ethical, cultural, equity, policy, and regulatory considerations. Units 6 and 7 address this objective through ethics case studies, comparative codes of ethics, and access issues in rural and diverse populations. This is the objective most directly tested by the Unit 6 Comparative Analysis of Multidisciplinary Codes of Ethics.

6. Evaluation of the evidence base supporting integrated behavioral health models and outcomes. This objective runs across the course but comes into sharpest focus in Unit 5, where quality measurement and quality improvement are the central topics, and in the presentation-based assessments that ask you to apply evidence to a specific setting.

Also Read: Herzing BH710: Policy and Value-Based Care in Behavioral Health — Course Guide

BH700 Course Structure at a Glance

BH700 Unit-by-Unit Breakdown

Unit 1: Basic Principles of Integrated Behavioral Health

Unit 1 establishes the definitional foundation for the course. The syllabus lists three topic areas: defining principles of integrated behavioral health, goals of integrated behavioral health, and behavioral health care providers and responsibilities. Graded work includes an Initial Discussion on the behavioral health workforce, a Mid-Week Reflection Discussion on behavioral health collaboration, the Identify Topic and Setting assignment, and a Ticket to Exit reflection. The Identify Topic and Setting assignment is worth noting early because the topic and setting you choose here likely carries into later units. [Read the BH700 Identify Topic and Setting Guide]

Unit 2: Historic Development and Models of Care

Unit 2 covers the history of integrated healthcare, the structured pillars of integrated care, models of integrated health care, and implementation science in behavioral health. This unit’s assignment, the Proposal, is worth 100 points. Students should confirm the specific proposal requirements in the detailed assignment instructions, since the syllabus confirms the assignment title and point value but not the formatting specifics. [Read the BH700 Proposal Guide]

Unit 3: Interprofessional Practice and Team-Based Care

Unit 3 focuses on interprofessional education, interprofessional collaboration in practice, and interprofessional team-based care. The unit’s major assignment is the Annotated Bibliography, worth 100 points, along with a Ticket to Exit reflection. Because Unit 3 builds directly on the interprofessional roles introduced in Unit 1, the sources you gather here are useful reference material for later units that touch on team-based care. [Read the BH700 Annotated Bibliography Guide]

Unit 4: Population Health Frameworks and the Biopsychosocial Perspective

Unit 4 introduces population health versus public health, determinants of health, population health management, and the biopsychosocial and whole health perspective. The major assessment is the Midterm Synchronous Presentation Seminar, worth 100 points. This is a presentation-based assessment rather than a written paper, so it requires different preparation than the earlier assignments.

Unit 5: Quality Measurement, Improvement and Information Technology

Unit 5 covers service delivery within diverse populations, patient versus customer experience, quality measurement and quality improvement, and technology and behavioral health. This unit contains the highest-point assignment in the course, the Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Presentation, worth 200 points. Given its weight, this assignment deserves early attention in your planning. [Read the BH700 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Guide]

Unit 6: Ethics, Policy and Regulation

Unit 6 addresses personal versus professional codes of ethics, multidisciplinary approaches to behavioral health, and an overview of behavioral health ethics, laws, and regulations. The unit’s assignment, the Comparative Analysis of Multidisciplinary Codes of Ethics, is worth 100 points and directly reflects course learning objective five. [Read the BH700 Comparative Analysis of Multidisciplinary Codes of Ethics Guide]

Unit 7: Accessibility to Health Care and Diverse Populations

Unit 7 covers rural integrated health services and culturally centered practice for enhancing service delivery to diverse populations. Instead of a written assignment, this unit includes the Unit 7 Quiz, worth 50 points, which is the only quiz identified in the syllabus.

Unit 8: Reflection

Unit 8 consists of a single graded discussion, Reflection 1-6, which asks students to reflect across the preceding seven units. There is no separate written assignment identified for this unit in the syllabus. [Read the BH700 Discussion Guide]

How Is BH700 Graded?

BH700 is graded out of 1,000 total points, distributed across three categories according to the syllabus:

Assignments account for the largest share of the BH700 grade at 65 percent, while discussions account for another 30 percent. Together, these two categories represent 95 percent of the course grade. The quiz, worth only 5 percent, is concentrated entirely in Unit 7.

Which BH700 Assessments Carry the Most Weight?

Based on the point values confirmed in the syllabus, the highest-value graded items in BH700 are:

The Unit 5 Gap Analysis Presentation stands alone as the single highest-point assignment in the course. A point value alone does not tell you how to complete an assignment. Students should verify the detailed submission requirements, including any specific formatting, length, or slide expectations, in the assignment instructions provided within the Herzing course platform.

What Should Busy Working Doctoral Students Prioritize?

Identify high-point assignments early

The 200-point Unit 5 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Presentation is worth double any other single assignment in BH700. If you are working full time while completing this course, reviewing the Unit 5 assignment instructions before you reach Unit 5, ideally while you are still in Units 2 or 3, gives you more room to plan around a presentation-based deliverable rather than discovering its scope during an already busy week.

Do not treat discussions as insignificant

Discussions carry 300 of the 1,000 total points in BH700, the same weight category as three Proposal-sized assignments combined. Each unit through Unit 7 includes both an Initial Discussion and a Mid-Week Reflection Discussion, meaning discussion work recurs every week of the course. Treating these as low-effort participation posts risks losing nearly a third of the available grade. Planning discussion responses with the same care as a shorter written assignment is a more accurate reflection of their actual weight.

Build research continuity across units

BH700 topics accumulate rather than reset each unit. Concepts introduced early, including integrated behavioral health, interprofessional collaboration, and the behavioral health workforce, reappear later alongside population health, social determinants of health, biopsychosocial perspectives, quality improvement, technology, ethics, policy, and cultural responsiveness. Keeping organized notes and citations as you move through the course, rather than starting each assignment’s research from scratch, reduces repeated searching later. The syllabus does not state that assignments build directly on one another, so treat this as a practical research habit rather than a formal course requirement.

Watch for presentation-based assessments

Two BH700 assignments are presentations rather than papers: the Unit 4 Midterm Synchronous Presentation Seminar and the Unit 5 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Presentation. Presentation formats typically involve different preparation than a written assignment, including synchronous delivery or slide design, depending on the specific instructions. The syllabus confirms these are presentation-based deliverables but does not specify slide counts, delivery format details, or rubric criteria, so those specifics should be verified in the assignment instructions within the course.

Key BH700 Topics You Need to Understand

Integrated behavioral health. The coordinated delivery of behavioral health services alongside primary and specialty care, rather than as a separate system. This is the organizing concept for the entire course.

Integrated care. The broader clinical and operational approach that integrated behavioral health sits within, covering how services, providers, and systems are structured to work together.

Behavioral health workforce. The range of providers, credentials, and responsibilities involved in delivering behavioral health services, introduced in Unit 1 as the foundation for later interprofessional discussion.

Interprofessional education. Training that brings different professional disciplines together to learn collaborative practice, a Unit 3 topic that underpins team-based care.

Interprofessional collaboration. The active practice of professionals from different disciplines working together on shared patient or population outcomes.

Team-based care. A care delivery structure built around a coordinated team rather than a single provider, central to Unit 3.

Population health. A framework focused on health outcomes across a defined group, distinguished in Unit 4 from public health and from individual-level clinical care.

Public health. The broader field concerned with health at the community and societal level, discussed in Unit 4 alongside population health for comparison.

Social determinants of health. Non-clinical factors, such as housing, income, and access, that affect health outcomes, addressed directly in the Unit 4 Initial Discussion.

Population health management. The operational strategies used to improve outcomes for a defined population, a Unit 4 topic.

Biopsychosocial perspective. A framework that considers biological, psychological, and social factors together when assessing a patient or case, central to Unit 4.

Whole health. An approach that treats the full range of a person’s needs, not just a single condition, discussed alongside the biopsychosocial perspective.

Quality measurement. The methods used to track how well behavioral health services are performing, a Unit 5 topic.

Quality improvement. The structured process of using measurement data to improve care delivery, paired with quality measurement in Unit 5.

Measurement-based care. A clinical approach that uses ongoing outcome data to guide treatment decisions, addressed in the Unit 5 Mid-Week Reflection Discussion.

Technology and behavioral health. How information technology supports behavioral health delivery, workflow, and privacy, a Unit 5 topic.

Ethics. The personal and professional principles governing behavioral health practice, contrasted directly in Unit 6.

Policy. The formal rules and legislation shaping how behavioral health services are delivered and regulated, covered in Unit 6.

Regulation. The specific laws and regulatory requirements governing behavioral health practice, also a Unit 6 topic.

Cultural responsiveness. The practice of adapting care delivery to the cultural context of the population served, addressed in Unit 7.

Rural healthcare. Access and delivery challenges specific to rural populations, the focus of the Unit 7 Initial Discussion on rural America and the healthcare crisis.

Accessibility. The broader question of how easily different populations can reach and use behavioral health services, a Unit 7 theme.

Diverse populations. The range of population groups whose needs are considered throughout Units 5 and 7 in the context of service delivery and cultural responsiveness.

Implementation science. The study of how evidence-based models and practices are actually put into use, a Unit 2 topic connected to the models of integrated health care.

BH700 Assignments and Discussion Guides

This page functions as the central hub for BH700. For assignment-specific guidance, including how to approach each deliverable within what the syllabus confirms, dedicated guides are available for individual assessments:

• Read the BH700 Identify Topic and Setting Guide
• Read the BH700 Proposal Guide
• Read the BH700 Annotated Bibliography Guide
• Read the BH700 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Guide
• [Read the BH700 Comparative Analysis of Multidisciplinary Codes of Ethics Guide]
• [Read the BH700 Discussion Guide]

Each guide goes deeper into a single assessment than this course-level overview can. If you have completed a draft and want a second read before you submit, that is a common point where students reach out for a review.

Working full time and need a second set of eyes on your BH700 Proposal or Annotated Bibliography before it’s due? Gradevia can review your draft, flag gaps against what the assignment appears to require, and point out anything that needs tightening. WhatsApp +1 564-544-6924 for a quick scope review.

BH700 Course Resources

According to the syllabus, BH700 uses the following required text:

Levin, B. L., & Hanson, A. (Eds.). (2020). Foundations of behavioral health. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18435-3

The syllabus also states that the course uses open educational resources, with content provided within each unit. Students should rely on the unit-level content provided in the course platform for readings beyond the primary text, since the syllabus does not itemize every open educational resource used across the eight units.

Frequently Asked Questions About BH700

What is Herzing University BH700? BH700, Foundations of Integrated Behavioral Health, is a 3.0-credit doctoral course that introduces the concepts, models, and systems supporting integrated behavioral health within healthcare settings.

What does BH700 Foundations of Integrated Behavioral Health cover? It covers the historical development of integrated care, interprofessional roles and team-based care, biopsychosocial and population health frameworks, quality measurement and technology, and ethical, cultural, policy, and regulatory considerations.

How many credits is BH700? BH700 is a 3.0-credit course, according to the syllabus.

Does BH700 have a prerequisite? No. The syllabus lists no prerequisites for BH700.

How many units are in BH700? BH700 is organized into eight units, running from basic principles in Unit 1 through a reflection discussion in Unit 8.

How is BH700 graded? The course is graded out of 1,000 total points: 300 points (30%) for discussions, 650 points (65%) for assignments, and 50 points (5%) for the quiz.

How much are BH700 discussions worth? Discussions are worth 300 points total, or 30 percent of the course grade, spread across Initial Discussions and Mid-Week Reflection Discussions in most units.

How much are BH700 assignments worth? Assignments are worth 650 points total, or 65 percent of the course grade, making them the largest grading category in BH700.

What is the highest-point BH700 assignment? The Unit 5 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Presentation, worth 200 points, is the highest-point single assignment confirmed in the syllabus.

Does BH700 include presentations? Yes. The Unit 4 Midterm Synchronous Presentation Seminar and the Unit 5 Integrated Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Presentation are both presentation-based assessments.

Does BH700 include a quiz? Yes. The Unit 7 Quiz is worth 50 points and is the only quiz identified in the syllabus.

What topics are covered in BH700? Major topics include integrated behavioral health principles, historical models of care, interprofessional collaboration, population health and the biopsychosocial perspective, quality measurement and technology, ethics and policy, and access for rural and diverse populations.

What textbook does BH700 use? BH700 uses Foundations of Behavioral Health, edited by Levin and Hanson (2020), published by Springer, along with open educational resources provided within each unit.

What should I verify before completing a BH700 assignment? The syllabus confirms assignment titles, unit placement, and point values, but detailed submission requirements, such as formatting, length, and rubric criteria, should be verified in the assignment instructions provided in the Herzing course platform. The syllabus also notes that course-specific information may be appended through an addendum, so it should be reviewed together with any addendum content posted in the course.

Need Help With a BH700 Assignment?

If you understand the BH700 topic but are not sure how to structure your Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, or Gap Analysis Presentation around what the assignment is actually asking for, that is a common point where a second perspective helps. Gradevia offers assignment guidance for working doctoral students managing BH700 alongside a full-time schedule, including help interpreting requirements, structuring a draft, and reviewing completed work before submission. WhatsApp +1 564-544-6924 to describe what you are working on and get a quick scope review.

Conclusion

BH700 sits at the front of a Herzing doctoral sequence that assumes fluency in integrated behavioral health concepts, interprofessional structures, and population-level frameworks. The course’s grading structure makes its priorities clear: assignments and discussions together account for 95 percent of the grade, with the Unit 5 Gap Analysis Presentation as the single largest deliverable. Working through the eight units with that weighting in mind, and verifying assignment-specific instructions in the course platform as you go, is the most direct way to move through BH700 without losing time to avoidable surprises.