About Community Health of Central Washington
CHCW is a nonprofit CHC network that spans across the Yakima Valley and serves over 30,000 individuals and families. Set in largely rural settings, CHCW operates five clinics: a pediatric clinic, a family medicine residency clinic, and three rural clinics.
Our patients come from culturally and economically diverse communities throughout the Valley.
About Our Primary Care Behavioral Health Training Programs
CHCW operates a robust Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) program throughout its clinics. PCBH are fully integrated into the primary care clinics. PCBH work with patients across the lifespan (i.e., children/adolescents to geriatric populations, pre-natal care to end of life concerns).
Additional PCBH services include running groups for a variety of health needs (e.g., chronic pain, pregnancy), developing pathways to systematically address specific concerns (e.g., smoking cessation), and preventive activities such as parenting education and stress management classes. In short, fellows will be exposed to any and all problems that fall into the health/mental health spectrum, from the straightforward to the very complex. There is no better place than a community health center to gain experience with a wide variety of patient health and wellness concerns!
PCBH team also serves on the faculty of CWFM’s family medicine residency program. One of the major experiences of the fellowships will be working with family medicine residents and assisting the PCBH team in implementing a robust psychosocial medicine curriculum.
Due to CHCW’s emphasis on training, a major component of the fellowships will be providing evidence based interventions. Fellows will have access to tools (e.g., UpToDate) that will allow them to quickly identify research regarding specific concerns and interventions. CHCW’s behavioral health department emphasizes contextual behavioral approaches due to the strong evidence for a variety of concerns, focus on functional improvement rather than symptom reduction, and flexibility in delivery format (e.g., brief visits). Orientations such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT), Mindfulness based stress reduction, behaviorism, Motivational Interviewing and Positive Psychology will be encouraged and emphasized throughout the fellowship year.
To learn more about CHCW’s PCBH program, visit https://www.chcw.org/pcbh/