Training for collaboration: Suggestions for the joint training of mental health clinicians and family practice residents

This article presents ideas on collaborarive training for medical and mental health professionals in an integrated, managed-care setting. These ideas are the result of a mutual effort by Sharp HealthCare's Family Practice Residency program and the University of San Diego's Marriage and Family Therapy Program. Challenges to developing training models emphasizing collaborative care are emphasized, including understanding the unique needs, limitations, and opportunities of managed-care systems, defining a vision for collaboration, persuading others of its value, building necessary relationships, changing curriculum, establishing training protocols, and dealing with many obstacles. Throughout the article the authors present principles guiding the development of training programs and provide background on the training program that is part of the Sharp-University of San Diego initiative.