Training Sites

Portneuf Hospital- Inpatient Psychiatry (Pocatello, ID)

Residents will work providing inpatient care at Portneuf Behavioral Health. The Portneuf BHU director Dr. Erwin is dedicated to compassionate, confidential treatment of all patients. Services provided include comprehensive behavioral health care for adults aged 18 and older who are faced with the challenges of psychiatric and behavioral health problems.

Portneuf Hospital- C/L (Pocatello, ID)

The Consultation-Liaison (C-L) rotation is designed to teach residents how to offer consultation and treatment options to other health professionals in a general medical setting. Residents will already have some C-L experience in their first two years of training, at either the VA or University of Utah Hospital. During PGY-3, residents rotate for 1-2 half days/ week at Portneuf Hospital under the supervision of an attending psychiatrist. While on this rotation our residents will gain mastery of skills and knowledge of psychiatric presentation in hospitalized medical/ surgical inpatients, the psychological impact of illness on patients and coping skills, treatment modalities appropriate for medically ill patients, understanding the consultation process and promoting the liaison role with medical, surgical, and emergency medicine departments. Residents will also gain knowledge in a variety of therapies relevant to medically ill patients including time-effective psychotherapy, somatic therapies, behavioral techniques, and psychotropic medications.

Portneuf Hospital - Crisis Psychiatry: Elective

The Emergency Psychiatry (EP) rotation occurs in the 3rd or 4th year of training and consists of supervised responsibility on a 24 hour psychiatric emergency service that is responsible for evaluation, crisis management, and triage of psychiatric patients. Residents will work closely with ED staff and crisis workers. While on this rotation our residents will learn: Idaho commitment laws, community resources for referral, criteria for hospital admission, procedures for emergency evaluation and management of patients in crisis (including those who pose a danger to self or others), and the evaluation and reduction of risk to caregivers. In addition, residents will gain knowledge in how to manage and assess the violent patient, pragmatics of crisis intervention, forensic issues related to emergency psychiatry, organic brain syndromes, emergency pharmacology (including overdose and treatment), somatoform disorders, roles in the ED, suicide and emergency interview techniques.

VA CBOC (Pocatello & Idaho Falls, ID)

The VA outpatient clinic (CBOC) provides residents with training and enhances skills and knowledge in managing veterans with a variety of disorders. Residents participating in the VA CBOC will also be able to follow a panel of patients for up to 2 years. This provides the opportunity for continuity of care in both therapy and psychopharmacology. The knowledge and skills are developed via the resident’s evaluation and management of outpatients under the supervision of psychiatrists and psychologists. Psychiatry residents may gain direct clinical experience in providing individual, couple, and family therapy as well as pharmacotherapy. Brief therapy, supportive therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy approaches are emphasized. The VA CBOC provides services to veterans in a wide-spread area of southeast Idaho. The VA CBOC will also focus on providing the resident with the opportunity to see patients with both mental and medical diagnosis including post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Since the VA CBOC is providing care for the veteran community, the clinic will be providing services for patients with co-morbid medical illnesses including cardiology, neurological conditions and other complex medical issues.

ISU Family Medicine Clinic (Pocatello, ID)

The ISU Family Medicine Residency is residency that trains 7 Family Medicine residents per year. The Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic has over 40,000 visits per year. This is a training clinic that provides comprehensive medical and mental health services to the under-served people of Idaho including OB patients, chronic mentally ill. Psychiatry residents will provide outpatient psychiatric consultation to family medicine faculty and residents in this clinic, as part of a team including a psychiatrist, psychologist, and social work staff.

ISU Student Health Services (Pocatello, ID)

Residents will provide psychiatric care to ISU students at the Student Health Services at Idaho State University. University Health Services is a busy primary care medicine and counseling facility that services the medical and psychological needs of a population of 13,000 students. Residents will work under the supervision of an attending psychiatrist and perform intake evaluations, prescribe treatment, and provide follow up care. Psychotherapy training opportunities are also available. Residents will have the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team consisting of primary care providers, psychologists, counselors, and social workers.

Community Outpatient Sites (Pocatello, ID)

The outpatient rotation at Life Change Associates occurs during the third year (with the possibility of extending through the fourth year) of training and enhances skills and knowledge in managing outpatients with a variety of disorders. The emphasis is on a private practice approach to treatment. The knowledge and skills are developed via the resident's evaluation and management of outpatients under the supervision of psychiatrist Deric Ravsten. Psychiatry residents gain direct clinical experience in providing individual, couple, and family therapy as well as pharmacotherapy. Brief therapy, supportive therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy approaches are emphasized.

Idaho State Hospital (Blackfoot, ID)

State Hospital South (SHS) in Blackfoot provides psychiatric inpatient treatment and skilled nursing care for patients from across the state of Idaho who are committed by a court for involuntary treatment. The facility is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and is certified by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. SHS includes 110 psychiatric beds and 42 skilled nursing beds for adults with the most serious and persistent mental illnesses. The hospital works in partnership with families and communities to enable civilly committed clients to return to community living. SHS also maintains a statewide program to restore competency of criminal justice patients with mental illness.

Health West Consult Clinic/ ECHO Project

ECHO is a model of education, mentoring, and peer support. ECHO participants take part in a virtual community with peers, learners and supervisors where guidance, support, and education are shared. During ECHO sessions, participants present real cases to specialists (and each other) for discussion and recommendations. We are aiming to combine this model with a mental health integration (MHI) approach. The idea is to blend the expertise of mental health, substance use and primary care physicians. This will be done at Health West, which serves as the primary care clinic for Idaho State University’s Family Medicine clinic as well as having several specialty clinics including HIV, MAT and transgender clinic. The goal of this psychiatry rotation is to provide a supervised clinical experience and instruction in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric outpatients. Residents will see patients referred from HIV, gender, and MAT clinics. These patients will then be presented during ECHO experiences which will provide for supervision and learning.

Fort Hall Indian Health Services (IHS), Shoshone Bannock Counseling and Family Services

Counseling and Family Services seeks to deliver mental health and medical social work services to the Shoshone-Bannock tribes and eligible recipients. The clinic serves adults and children. The clinic provides psychiatric assessments, diagnosis and medication management for individuals, case management, 24 hour crisis intervention, group therapy (anger management, parenting, healthy relationships), medical social work, education and prevention services and the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder team. While medication management is the focus, there is also some brief psychoeducation and supportive therapy.

The clinic operates off of a formulary which provides an opportunity to get extensive experience with medications often not available or used in other settings.

There is also an opportunity to see patients in consultation at the correctional facility.