Name
20+ Years of PCBH Education, Part II: Who Stays in Primary Care, and How Do We Build Providers Who Last?
Description

At the 2024 CFHA Annual Conference (Session G13), the presenter shared 20 years of PCBH education at HealthPoint, the largest FQHC in King County, WA — covering onboarding, precepting, and common sticking points for learners new to integrated care. This session picks up where that one left off. HealthPoint launched its PCBH program in 2002 and began training BH learners in 2004 and has been an internship site in the APA-accredited Cascades Region of NPTC since 2017, currently training 8 pre-doctoral interns and up to 5 post-doctoral fellows annually across a 103,000-patient, 20-clinic FQHC. Drawing on intern outcome data stratified by prior primary care experience, this session examines who stays in primary care after PCBH training, what predicts that commitment among trainees without prior primary care backgrounds, and how training directors can identify resilient candidates and build the professional durability that sustains careers in high-demand integrated care settings.

Speakers
Robert Allred, PhD, ABPP
Content Level
Intermediate
Tags
Primary Care Behavioral Health Model, Training and Workforce Development, Workforce development
Session Type
Concurrent
Objective 1
IDENTIFY at least three evidence-based factors that predict primary care career choice and retention among behavioral health trainees trained in the PCBH model.
Objective 2
DESCRIBE strategies for selecting and screening internship applicants who are likely to remain in primary care settings following PCBH training, including those without prior primary care experience.
Objective 3
APPLY at least two evidence-informed approaches to building professional resilience in behavioral health trainees and early-career providers working in high-demand primary care environments.
Content Reference 1

Robinson, P. J., & Reiter, J. T. (2025). Behavioral Consultation and Primary Care: A Guide to Integrating Services (3rd ed.). Springer.

Content Reference 2

Nandiwada, D. R., Farkas, A. H., Nikiforova, T., Leung, P. B., Donovan, A. K., Killian, K., Thomas, M. L., Singh, M. K., Gallagher, B., & Callender, D. M. (2024). Exploring models of exposure to primary care careers in training: A narrative review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 39(2), 277–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08532-6

Content Reference 3

Kryzhanovskaya, I., Cohen, B. E., & Kohlwes, R. J. (2021). Factors associated with a career in primary care medicine: Continuity clinic experience matters. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36(11), 3383–3387. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-06625-8

Content Reference 4

Ma, K. P. K., Breedlove, D., LePoire, E., Prado, M. G., Ratzliff, A., & Stephens, K. A. (2022). Integrated primary care psychology training programs: Challenges and strategies. Families, Systems, & Health, 40(4), 491–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000770

Content Reference 5

Ogbeide, S. A., Bauman, D., & Beachy, B. (2022). Clinical supervision within the primary care behavioral health model: What we know and where we need to go. Psychological Services, 20(2), 335–342. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000684