Practical mental health curriculum for primary care training programs
Flexible, audio-based teaching modules that help programs give trainees a structured approach to common outpatient mental health decisions.
Designed for programs that want practical behavioral health teaching without having to build every session from scratch. Trainees complete focused audio prework, then use didactic time for cases, discussion, and clinical application.
Primary care trainees need structured mental health training
Family medicine, internal medicine, NP, and PA trainees routinely manage depression, medication side effects, treatment nonresponse, diagnostic uncertainty, and patient expectations in outpatient care.
But many programs do not have consistent access to dedicated psychiatry teaching, and faculty may not have the time to create a full behavioral health curriculum from scratch.
Collaborative Psychiatry is designed to make that teaching easier to implement: structured enough to use as curriculum, flexible enough to adapt to the program’s schedule.
A low-barrier model for independent learning and case-based teaching
Audio prework
Learners complete chaptered audio modules before the session, reducing the need to use didactic time for basic content delivery.
Structured didactics
Faculty can use suggested teaching structures, discussion prompts, and case-based approaches to make the live session easier to run.
Workspace and tools
Learners keep access to a course workspace with quick-reference notes, PDFs, algorithms, flowsheets, and patient handouts for use after the session.
Example: Managing Depression in Primary Care
Depression is a natural starting point for many primary care programs because it touches diagnosis, screening, medication selection, follow-up, treatment nonresponse, discontinuation, and patient communication.
Diagnostic clarification, differential diagnosis, PHQ use, and first-line antidepressant selection.
Follow-up, dose optimization, switching, augmentation, maintenance treatment, discontinuation, and patient communication.
The practical deliverable: with 1.5 hours of independent audio learning and as little as two hours of structured didactics, residents can leave with a comprehensive approach to managing depression in practice, plus ongoing access to the course workspace and PDFs to answer questions and reinforce the learning in clinic.
The goal is not to turn trainees into psychiatrists. The goal is to give them a clearer, safer, and more organized approach to common depression management decisions in primary care.
Adaptable to the way your program actually teaches
The default model is two case-based sessions per course, with assigned audio prework before each session. But the structure can be adjusted depending on the program’s didactic schedule, rotation structure, faculty availability, and learner needs.
Additional topics can be discussed depending on program needs.
Designed for front-line training environments
- Family medicine residency programs
- Internal medicine programs with ambulatory or primary care tracks
- Primary care NP and PA training programs
- FQHC-based training programs
- Faculty teams looking for practical behavioral health teaching material
Created for outpatient clinicians managing mental health in real practice
Collaborative Psychiatry was created by Daniel Suter, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and addiction psychiatrist who works clinically in integrated primary care settings.
The curriculum focuses on practical decision-making: how to clarify the problem, choose the next step, communicate the plan, and know when a higher level of care or specialty support is needed.
Interested in using this with your program?
Collaborative Psychiatry is currently exploring pilot partnerships with selected primary care training programs. A pilot can start with the depression curriculum and be adapted based on your program’s schedule, faculty bandwidth, and teaching needs.