Why healthcare stakeholders have differing opinions toward integrating care.

What is it about?

Integrating psychological services within medical settings can improve the care provided to patients as well as the satisfaction of both patients and providers. There is limited research asking integrated care providers, educators, and students their opinions (both positive and negative) on integrated care services and education, and mapping their attitudes to their educational and clinical experiences and practices. In this study, a greater presence of integrated care service delivery where they practice was associated with more positive attitudes toward integrated care. Interestingly, having previous integrated care experience, and younger age, were associated with more perceived challenges in learning about integrated care. Along with deepening our understanding of factors to address when attempting to implement integrated practices, our findings suggest a need to revisit current integrated care curricula and education practices in psychology training programs, particularly with younger learners in mind. Educational and experiential opportunities to see IC in vivo, especially early in the developmental trajectory of trainees (e.g., extern, pre-doctoral intern, and postdoctoral psychology training levels), may represent one such promising change.

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Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash

Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study highlights the importance of differences in provider characteristics that may contribute to successful implementation of system change broadly, and integrated psychological services specifically. Younger students reported more difficulty learning IC than older students, suggesting a need for generationally tailored education. Knowledge gained from this data can be used to create a blueprint for understanding and implementing models of interprofessional, team-based training and service delivery for psychologists.

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