I5 – Equipping the Next Generation of Behavioral Health Trainees: A Clinical Supervision Primer

Summary

As Behavioral Health (BH) Integration in primary care settings steadily becomes the standard of care it has never been more important to build up the BH workforce with skilled new professionals ready and able to work such settings. Despite an increasing number of trainees who are interested in receiving training primary care settings, there is a dearth of competent clinical supervisors to execute this task. Therefore, it is imperative to support clinical supervisors in order to mitigate this imbalance. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a clinical supervision primer for those who currently serve as clinical supervisors or who plan to provide clinical supervision to BH trainees in the primary care setting. This presentation will review evidence-based clinical supervision approaches, the differences between clinical supervision in mental health settings versus primary care settings, the infusion of evidenced-based teaching practices from medical education into clinical supervision for behavioral health trainees, and the importance of understanding macro versus microsystem issues that occur within clinical supervision in primary care settings. Qualitative examples from a current HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education Training Grant will be discussed as well as recommendations for supporting community-based clinical supervisors as well as faculty members who serve as clinical supervisors from training programs.