Graduate Psychology Education Programs - The Wright Institute’s APA Accredited Internship, Integrated Health Psychology Training Program (IHPTP) is uniquely positioned for this grant, meeting its criteria with a proven track record of training health service psychology interns to work in integrated primary care settings. This grant would significantly expand the program’s capacity to deliver trauma-informed care, substance use disorder (SUD) and opiate use disorder (OUD) treatment, and services to underserved Child Adolescent and Young Adult (CAY) populations while preparing a future workforce to deliver culturally responsive services in underserved communities. Through hands on integrated clinical experience, interns work alongside medical providers, residents, social workers, and psychiatrists in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and family medicine residency programs at LifeLong Medical Care (LMC), Contra Costa Health Family Medicine Residency (CCH) and John Muir Family Medicine Residency (JMF) community-based primary care sites serving medically underserved areas in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the three years of this project, GPE funds will be used to expand access to training for 18 psychology interns in integrated primary care while strengthening the behavioral health workforce in high-need settings. By the end of the project period, the program aims to 1) recruit and train a diverse cohort of interns prepared to work in community health centers and other high-need areas 2) provide interdisciplinary training in integrated primary care settings with a strong emphasis on CAY populations and enhance SUD OUD treatment by dedicating at least 25% of experiential training and service delivery to screening, treatment, and prevention in primary care. Additionally, it will expand culturally responsive, trauma-informed care through targeted interventions, didactic instruction, and hands-on experiential training. It will also strengthen screening, intervention, and training efforts by integrating social determinants of health to improve behavioral health outcomes for CAY populations in primary care settings. Further, it aims to advance CAY-informed telehealth by enhancing training, treatment, and supervision. To support long-term workforce development, the program will 3) strengthen partnerships with community health organizations to create training opportunities, expand services, and establish a sustainable workforce pipeline in high-need areas. Finally, it will 4) enhance professional development resources for clinical faculty, emphasizing provider resilience and enriching the trainee curriculum. Psychology interns funded by this grant will develop competencies to address the pressing behavioral health needs of children, adolescents, and young adults, particularly those impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and systemic health disparities. Through these efforts, the program will train a skilled and diverse workforce capable of delivering high-quality, integrated behavioral health care, effectively addressing critical gaps in mental health services for vulnerable populations. By expanding IHPTP’s reach, this grant will help build a future ready behavioral health workforce, ensuring that psychology interns are equipped to provide integrated, trauma-informed care, substance use disorder treatment, and integrated and telebehavioral health services where they are needed most—directly within high-need primary care settings serving underserved CAY populations.
