Educating residents in behavioral health care and collaboration: comparison of conventional and integrated training models.

PURPOSE: To determine whether former pediatric residents trained using a model of integrated behavioral health (BH) care in their primary care continuity clinics felt more comfortable managing BH care and better prepared to collaborate with BH professionals than did peers from the same residency who trained in clinics with a conventional model of BH care. METHOD: University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry pediatric residents were assigned to one of two continuity clinic sites. At one site, psychology fellows and faculty were integrated into the clinic teams in the mid-1990s. At the other, conventional patterns of consultation and referral continued. In 2004, the authors surveyed 245 alumni (graduated 1989-2003) about their experiences and their comfort with providing BH care and collaborating with BH providers in their current practice. RESULTS: A total of 174 alumni (71%) responded. There were significant differences between graduates who trained in the two models. Those who trained in the integrated model were significantly more likely than others to report that they had consulted or planned treatment with a BH provider during residency and to report that their continuity clinic helped prepare them to collaborate with BH providers. They were somewhat more likely to believe that their overall residency training prepared them to manage BH issues in their current practice. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that an integrated training environment, described in detail in the companion article in this issue, can enhance pediatric resident education in the management of BH problems and collaboration with BH specialists.

Educating residents in behavioral health care and collaboration: integrated clinical training of pediatric residents and psychology fellows.

Pediatric residency practices face the challenge of providing both behavioral health (BH) training for pediatricians and psychosocial care for children. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and Rochester General Hospital developed a joint training program and continuity clinic infrastructure in which pediatric residents and postdoctoral psychology fellows train and practice together. The integrated program provides children access to BH care in a primary care setting and gives trainees the opportunity to integrate collaborative BH care into their regular practice routines. During 1998-2008, 48 pediatric residents and 8 psychology fellows trained in this integrated clinical environment. The program's accomplishments include longevity, faculty and fiscal stability, sustained support from pediatric leadership and community payers, the development in residents and faculty of greater comfort in addressing BH problems and collaborating with BH specialists, and replication of the model in two other primary care settings. In addition to quantitative program outcomes data, the authors present a case example that illustrates how the integrated program works and achieves its goals. They propose that educating residents and psychology trainees side by side in collaborative BH care is clinically and educationally valuable and potentially applicable to other settings. A companion report published in this issue provides results from a study comparing the perceptions of pediatric residents whose primary care continuity clinic took place in this integrated setting with those of residents from the same pediatric residency who had their continuity clinic training in a nonintegrated setting.