Background – Mental illness is an important public health problem worldwide. It is among the leading causes of disability adjusted lost years globally. The problem is serious especially in low and middle income countries with a large treatment gap. Since mental illnesses can be treated by trained primary care professionals, there is a global movement of scaling up integrated mental health services into primary health care to alleviate the treatment gap. There is lack of clear understanding on the need and readiness for mental health services integration in public health centers of North Wollo Zone. Objective – To explore the need and readiness for mental health services integration in public health centers of North Wollo Zone in 2020. Methods – An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to explore the mental health services integration in public health centers of North Wollo Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia from June 05 to June 30, 2020. Non communicable disease coordinators at zone health department and district/town health offices, health center professionals trained to give mental health services and psychiatric nurse were the study participants. A face to face key informant interview was done with 12 purposively selected study participants using semi structured interview guides. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data using atlas Ti software version 7.5 after the data was transcribed and translated. Result–The three central themes identified included: mental health services needs of the community, mental health services provision and readiness to integrate mental health services to health centers. Mental illnesses were prevalent in urban areas, but majority seek care in religious and traditional places instead of modern health care. Mental health services provided in health centers included emergency, referral and follow up. Shortage of trained professionals together with lack of government emphasis and budget were the major problems for integrating mental health services into health centers. Conclusion – Mental illnesses are problem in the community of urban areas of North Wollo and seeking modern health care for it was rare. There is initiation of some mental health services provision in the health centers. Further work and improvements are highly required on various aspects to integrate mental health services into the health