It’s no easy task for people living in rural and underserved communities to access treatment for substance abuse, addiction, and other mental health issues. Many people can’t access care due to lack of transportation, limited financial resources, a shortage of health professionals, and the stigma they feel about asking for help.
Our own psychiatry residents saw this need and shared their own input and ideas about how we could address it. They recognized that, with Utah’s large rural community, they needed more specific training around how to serve these communities and underserved populations. The answer: the Department of Psychiatry’s new Community and Rural Mental Health Concentration, plus the new Idaho Rural Track.
“We’ve built a culture in which people feel safe sharing their ideas around how to improve our programs. A lot of our innovative training tracks came into being because trainees expressed an interest in rural psychiatry and setting up rotations in rural parts of the state.â€
Kristi Kleinschmit, MD, Vice Chair of Education
Community and Rural Mental Health Concentration: Lifting Up the Underserved
The Community and Rural Mental Health Concentration offers residents the chance to rotate through elective sites that serve patients who are underfunded and underserved as well as those with severe and persistent mental illness.
Not only have our residents built community expertise, but thanks to their ideas, they’ll have more specialized training opportunities in the future. One of our recent trainees helped establish an assertive community treatment program in a homeless organization that has now become a training site.
Idaho Rural Track: Keeping Care Close to Home
In 2020, we began recruiting three residents per year for the Idaho Rural Track in Pocatello. Through our partnership with Idaho State Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, we aim to increase the workforce in rural areas we already serve, allowing patients in Idaho to stay closer to home for care rather than traveling to Utah. Residents spend most of their first two years working with fellow residents in the Adult Psychiatry program in Salt Lake City. In years three and four, they live in Pocatello, Idaho, refining their practice and serving the community.
The Idaho Rural Track is another example of resident advocacy. In 2020, three of our senior residents were very involved in developing this rotation and helping us build relationships with attending physicians in Idaho, advocating for the rotation sites, and giving input into the design of the program. With the development of our residency tracks, we want to train future attendings who can provide care in these underserviced areas and then later serve as future educators for our incoming residents.