Primary care training and enhancement - residency training in mental and behavioral health - the alaska family medicine residency program (akfmr) of providence health & services - washington…

Primary care training and enhancement - residency training in mental and behavioral health - the alaska family medicine residency program (akfmr) of providence health & services - washington (providence) requests a primary care training and enhancement - residency training in mental and behavioral health grant to increase the number of family medicine physicians trained to provide culturally competent, trauma-informed behavioral health and substance use services for alaska's underserved populations in interdisciplinary treatment settings. Hrsa funding will allow akfmr to train 84 residents throughout the five-year funding period. By the end of the grant, 36 residents will have completed the entire 3-year longitudinal curriculum. Grant funding will enhance the current interdisciplinary primary care training in mental and behavioral health as well as opioid use disorder (OUD), substance use disorders (SUD), and CO-occurring mental health and SUD / OUD disorders. Additional focus and training areas will include adolescent and perinatal mental health. Alaska family medicine residency is the only full-time medical residency program in alaska. Akfmr was developed to train family medicine physicians to practice in any part of alaska, including remote and isolated alaskan communities. Akfmr provides rigorous training to help prepare residents to practice in any challenging, particularly rural settings. In addition, residents receive extra training in rural locations, emergency medicine, orthopedics, obstetrics, pediatrics, neonatal intensive care, and trans-cultural medicine to prepare them for the unique challenges of bush practice. The proposed project will allow akfmr to enhance and expand the training of primary care residents in the prevention, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral to services for mental and behavioral health conditions for the pediatric, adolescent, young adult, and perinatal populations who are at-risk or have experienced abuse, trauma, or mental health and/or substance use disorders, including those related to the effects of gun violence. The project will integrate psychiatric, behavioral health, and addiction medicine clinical supervision into pre-existing resident rotations; many such rotations focus on providing care to underserved pediatric, adolescent, young adult, perinatal, and other vulnerable populations. The project will also create new rotations for the residents that integrate a psychiatric and addiction medicine focus within family medicine practices at partner sites. Required and selective rotations will offer unique opportunities to trainees, provide valuable services in desperately needed service lines, and strengthen provider pipelines throughout alaska. Akfmr requests a funding priority based on the training of residents in 2021-2022 in rural areas, including tribes and tribal organizations in such areas. Akfmr requests a funding preference based on its high MUC placement rate of 92% in 2021 and 2022.