Community Health of Central Washington

Message from Dr. David Bauman

Match # 204412

Internship positions available: 3

Number of Residency/Job positions: 1

Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW) provides quality healthcare through service and education. CHCW has been recognized as a level three Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and utilizes teams to provide integrated primary care behavioral health and other services for its patients. PCMH teams include a Physician, Medical Resident, or Advanced Practice Clinician, Nurse, Medical Assistant, Behavioral Health Consultant, and Care Coordinator. Since 2006, CHCW has implemented the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) Model in which the Behavioral Health Consultant functions as a core member of the PCMH team. Behavioral health interventions look like primary care visits (rather than specialty care visits). Visits are brief (15-30 minutes), limited in number (one to six visits per patient with an average of between two to three visits), and are provided in the primary care practice area so that the patient views meeting with the Behavioral Health Consultant as a routine primary care service. The main objectives of Behavioral Health Consultant interventions are to:

Assist the PCMH team in the recognition, treatment, and management of mental health and addiction concerns, chronic diseases, psychosocial issues, and health risk behaviors.
Improve patient functioning by teaching the patient one or more skills during a single or series of consultation visits.
Generate one or more recommendations for the PCMH team concerning how to intervene with the referral problem on an-ongoing basis.
Transfer skills and knowledge about behavior change principles to the patient, as well as to the PCMH team.

In addition to PCBH services, interns will co-facilitate patient groups on topics such as chronic pain, weight management, and lifestyle changes. Interns will also complete critical analysis and quality improvement projects on topics of their choosing, allowing for a deeper level of knowledge in areas that interests them. Lastly, interns will progress in their training with other medical professionals and receive exposure to the Behavioral Scientist role of family medicine residencies. This experience will prepare interns to work as faculty members of family medicine residencies.

It should be noted that monthly didactic training will be held at the HealthPoint administrative office in Renton, Washington. Depending on office placement, interns will have to travel between 2-2.5 hours each month for didactic training. Community Health of Central Washington is a member of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan repayment program.

Our Mission

Community Health of Central Washington was founded with one bold and clear vision: All people in our region should enjoy access to affordable and appropriate health care. Our mission is to provide quality healthcare through service and education.

Our Supervisors

Site Training Director

David Bauman, Psy.D.

Dr. Bauman is a licensed psychologist and is the Behavioral Health Education Director at Central Washington Family Medicine, where he also serves on the residency faculty and as a behavioral health consultant. He completed formal training in the Primary Care Behavioral Health model and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy during his pre and post-doctoral experiences. His training supervisors have included both Jeff Reiter and Kirk Strosahl and he has received formal training from Patricia Robinson. Dr. Bauman has presented at a number of national conferences and authored book chapters on working with behavioral concerns in primary care. He currently serves on the leadership team of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association’s PCBH Special Interest Group. He has experience in training medical providers and residents, as well as behavioral health consultants, regarding the integration of behavioral health care and implementation of ACT (and other behavioral approaches) within primary care and other medical settings.

Primary Supervisors

Arissa Walberg, Ph.D.
Assistant Training Director

Dr. Walberg is the Assistant Site Director for the CHCW internship, a BHC and faculty member at Central Washington Family Medicine. She received her doctorate degree from Colorado State University in Counseling Psychology, where she specialized in health psychology and integrated behavioral health. Dr. Walberg completed her predoctoral internship at the Nebraska Internship Consortium in Professional Psychology, with placements at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton Medical School. As a post-doctoral resident at Multnomah County Health Department, Dr. Walberg implemented PCBH in a school based-health center. Her research interests include PCBH, integration of BH into medical centers, and medical trainee education. Dr. Walberg has authored and presented on a variety of behavioral health integrated related topics.

Bridget Beachy, Psy.D.

Dr. Beachy is a licensed psychologist, is currently the Director of Behavioral Health at Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW), and leads a team of seven Behavioral Health Consultants (BHC). She is also a behavioral health faculty member at CHCW’s Central Washington Family Medicine Residency and has duties working as a BHC. She has received supervision from Dr. Strosahl during her postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Beachy also completed her pre-doctoral training at HealthPoint, a federally qualified health center which is known for its robust Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) program and was developed by Jeff Reiter. Dr. Beachy has experience in training medical residents, medical students, and BHCs in PCBH as well as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Focused. Additionally, she has co-authored two book chapters addressing behavioral health in medical settings, and has given multiple presentations on integrated care both locally and nationally.

Ruth Olmer, Psy.D.

Dr. Olmer is a Behavioral Health Consultant at CHCW, since 2017. She earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in 2015. She spent her internship at Otis R. Bowen Center, a Community Mental Health Center, and her residency at VA Black Hills Healthcare System, a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Olmer’s research interest include Neuropsychological screening within the PCHB model; effect of group treatment access on frequency of primary care utilization; couple and parenting interventions within the PCBH model. Her theoretical orientation is Systemic and Solution-Focused.

Training Opportunities

Community Health of Central Washington has five medical clinics in Kittitas and Yakima Counties, three of which are located in rural areas. Interns will provide individual patient services in exam rooms and group services in classrooms. Additional training settings may include other community health centers, health departments, hospitals, long-term care/skilled nursing facilities, a neurodevelopmental center, patient homes, and specialty practices.

CHCW will ensure an encouraging and supportive learning environment by including training that promotes inter-professional practice in the PCMH model of care; training in clinical environments that are transforming or have transformed to include integrated care with other health professionals; development and implementation of curricula to give interns the skills necessary to build and work in inter-professional teams that include diverse professions outside of medicine, behavioral health, and dentistry; development and implementation of curricula to develop leaders in practice transformation; development of faculty to teach practice transformation; and development and implementation of inter-professional faculty teams. Interns will be mentored, in part, by family medicine residency faculty, which will prepare them to be family medicine residency behavioral scientist faculty.

CHCW will provide interns with laptops, access to the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, and access to the University of Washington Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) Family Medicine Residency Practice and Research Network (WPRN).

Interns’ schedule will be 40 to 50 hours per week on a Monday through Friday schedule to be arranged between the intern and the clinic of placement. Interns matched at this site may be expected to work late (until 8:00 pm) one shift per week due to the clinic open hours. Interns will also participate in an orientation at CHCW beginning on June 19, 2017 (prior to the formal NPTC orientation and internship start date). These days are required and the days will be “comped” back to interns during the internship year.

Example Training Opportunities:

Individual Therapy (Child, Adolescent, Adult)
Group Therapy
Marital Interventions
Couples Interventions
Family Interventions
Consultation with other Professionals
Substance Abuse / Addictions Treatment
Prevention
Research
Teaching / Psychoeducation
ADHD Evaluation
Suicide Assessment
Primary Care Behavioral Health Model

Intern Selection Process

All intern applicants will be considered for placement, though receipt of a Master’s degree is required at this site (rather than education-equivalent). Licensed or license-eligible applicants are preferred. Candidates are expected to have skill sets commensurate with applicants at the pre-internship level. A successful candidate will be one who is interested in working in a challenging and innovative setting of primary care. While not required, applicants that have past experience working in integrated care teams, primary care or other medical centers, and rural and underserved areas are preferred. While not required, preferred applicants would have a 1st or 3rd wave behaviorism background and experience in providing brief interventions for a variety of concerns. Candidates should also be willing and able to work successfully on an integrated care team, be self-motivated and high energy to meet the demands of primary care. They are expected to be dependable, prepared, curious, non-defensive, and open to constructive feedback.

Interviews may be conducted over the telephone or by teleconferencing. However, it is preferred that interviews take place face-to-face so that interns and the training site can determine the best fit. Candidates extended an interview invite will have the option of interviewing at the December NPTC interview day in Springfield, MO or at CHCW in January. Site of interview will not influence selection of interns. Those candidates not invited to interview will be notified by letter.

Interview Day

Interns applying to Community Health of Central Washington will have the option to attend an on-site interview in Washington on Monday, January 15th, 2018 as well as the NPTC universal interview day (more details about the universal interview day available here). Location of interview will not impact match rankings; rather, they offer multiple interview dates at different sites to allow travel flexibility for applicants.