J09 – Examining Training Implications for Mental Health Professionals in Integrated Care: A Systematic Review

Summary

Integrated care, a healthcare reform that targets on-site collaboration of medical and mental health professionals, has become increasingly prevalent in both the healthcare landscape and graduate training programs. The integrated care movement is reflected in both legislature, such as the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (Croft & Parish, 2013; Kuramoto, 2014; Rosenbaum, 2011), and specific accrediting bodies, such as the Council of Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs training standards (CACREP, 2015). This is due in part to the estimated 49% of individuals with poor mental health receiving their treatment in the primary care setting, as opposed to a trained mental health provider (Peterson, Miller, Payne-Murphy, & Philips, 2014). With the introduction of the Heath, Wise-Romero, and Romero (2013) model of integration, agencies and facilities have reported positive consumer outcomes suggesting a reduction in both physical and mental health symptoms (Lenz, Dell’Aquila, & Baskin, 2018), increased medication adherence (Archer et al., 2012), and addressing the noted health disparities for minority populations (Kohn-Wood & Hooper, 2014). To further incentivize the training of mental health professionals in an integrated setting, the Health Resource and Service Administration (HRSA) has provided external funding opportunities through the Behavioral Health Workforce and Education Training (BHWET) Program for graduate-level counselors. Counselor educators have taken advantage of these grants with the BHWET (2018) Program reporting over 1,300 counselors receiving that their grant funding over a four-year span. Though, the future of integrated care in graduate training programs is called into question if we do not investigate this modality through both a training and sustainability lens. Unfortunately, external funding is not always guaranteed, and our research should demonstrate the impact a trained mental health provider has in integrated care. Specifically, we need to shift our focus into effective training curricula, as well as outcome studies for the healthcare industry and consumers when a mental health provider is providing care. The purpose of this interactive presentation will be to present the findings of a systematic review that specifically investigates training modalities for mental health professionals in integrated care. As such, sustainability of integrated care in graduate training will be explored to address effective training strategies for professionals-in-training. We will provide an overview of the benefits of integrated care, evidenced-based training modalities for mental health professionals, the current landscape, and future considerations for academics training graduate students.