Win/Win: Creating Collaborative Training Opportunities for Behavioral Health Providers within Family Medicine Residency Programs

Integrating behavioral health into primary healthcare offers multiple advantages for patients and health professionals. This model requires a new skill set for all healthcare professionals that is not emphasized in current educational models. The new skills include interprofessional team-based care competencies and expanded patient care competencies. Health professionals must learn new ways to efficiently and effectively address health behavior change, and manage behavioral health issues such as depression and anxiety. Learning environments that co-train mental health and primary care professionals facilitate acquisition of both teamwork and patient care competencies for mental health and primary care professional trainees. Family Medicine Residency programs provide an excellent opportunity for co-training. This article serves as a “how to” guide for residency programs interested in developing a co-training program. Necessary steps to establish and maintain a program are reviewed, as well as goals and objectives for a co-training curriculum and strategies to overcome barriers and challenges in co-training models.