For additional information, please call or write:

UCD Clinical Psychology
Box F546
13001 E. 17th Place
Aurora, CO 80045
303-724-3609
 
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Department of Psychiatry

Division of Clinical Psychology

Primary Care Psychology Rotation

North Colorado Health Alliance with Sunrise Community Health Clinics

This major rotation of the psychology internship program is designed to provide interns with an opportunity to learn all aspects of working as a psychologist in primary care settings. The practice site is a primary care clinic, Sunrise Monfort Family Clinic.This clinic is one provider of the North Colorado Health Alliance (NCHA), a collaborative health partnership in Greeley, CO, which includes the Weld County safety net providers. Sunrise Community Health, Federally Qualified Health Care Clinics, offers specialized children’s and adult services and operates a dental clinic in Greeley, Co and an adult clinic in Loveland, CO. Other partners in the collaborative are North Range Behavioral Health (NRBH) and Island Grove Regional Treatment Center (IGRTC).

NRBH is the community mental health center and IGRTC is the substance abuse center. NRBH and IGRTC provide a full range of behavioral health services, including outpatient and residential services. These four members of the collaborative servea diverse group of patients of all ages that includes adults, children, infants, pregnant women and seniors. Their patients include a large proportion of rural, immigrant, and refugee individuals. Other partners in this collaborative include the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment and the North Colorado Family Medicine Residency Program.

Goals of the Primary Care Psychology Track

The goal of this major rotation is to develop psychologists who can provide a full range of clinical primary care psychology services in the context of multi-disciplinary primary care health teams. We emphasize provision of such services to a highly diverse urban and sub-urban population. Interns will complete the internship identifying themselves as health care providers who are important members of health care teams.

Secondarily, interns will develop an understanding of the process and some techniques of medical education. They will become familiar with the roles that psychologists can have in medical education and will participate in the training of physicians in communications skills at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Objectives of the Primary Care Psychology Track

Specific Training Activities

Required Activities

Interns will engage in the provision of primary care psychology services in collaboration with family physicians, psychiatrists, case managers, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, RN’s, MAs, social workers, medical students and residents. These services may include:

  1. Consultation regarding behavioral health issues.
  2. Consultation with physicians about patient care, mental health and health behavior change.
  3. Assessment of patients for mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.
  4. Provision of team based care.
  5. Teaching and supporting patient self management skills.
  6. Facilitation of health-related support groups.
  7. Individual psychotherapy, primarily short term interventions.
  8. Health promotion/disease prevention interventions.
  9. Psychological screening and assessments.
  10. Cultural competency training involving selected populations, primarily Latinos, Somalis, and rural.

Interns will contribute to the education and training of medicine residents via:

  1. Small group teaching.
  2. Coaching physicians in techniques of health behavior change.
  3. Collaborative care/clinical teaching.

Interns will participate in ongoing research and/or program development in community based medicine with options including:

  1. Participation in clinical home visits.
  2. Participation in practice based research working groups.
  3. Focal study of a selected underserved population, immigrants, refugees, and rural patients.

Interns will master a primary care psychology curriculum through:

  1. Selected readings.
  2. Attending lecture and seminar series.
  3. Participation in medical school education activities, including Family Medicine and Psychiatry Grand Rounds.
  4. Participation in weekly supervision sessions.
  5. Supervised participation in a primary care health team.

Theoretical Approaches

Dan Bruins, Ph.D. uses/teaches a variety of approaches and specializes in health psychology.

Population of Clients

Our patient population includes insured and underinsured patients from a large variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. It includes refugees from Somalia, and immigrant populations from Mexico, Central America, and Latin America. It also includes a seasonal migrant population who travel to this area to harvest varied crops from May through September.

Supervision

The intern will receive a minimum of 2 hours of supervision per week.  In addition, the intern has access to North Range Behavioral Health and Island Grove Regional Treatment Center behavioral health staff at all levels for consultation.

Supervisors

Dan Bruns, Ph.D., licensed health psychologist

Collaborating Medical Professionals

Dr. Pat Powell, Medical Director, Sunrise Community Clinics

Dr. Mark Wallace, Executive Director, Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Interim Director, North Colorado Family Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program

Becky Marujo, LCSW, Director of Center of Excellence, North Colorado Health Alliance
 

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