Psychiatry · General Practice · 4 h ago
Behavioral health fellowship associated with lower stigma among primary care clinicians
A 2024 US cross-sectional study compared mental health stigma scores in 154 primary care clinicians, including 75 graduates of a one-year primary care psychiatry fellowship. Fellowship alumni reported lower stigma scores than clinicians who had not completed similar training; practice-area socioeconomic disadvantage was not associated with stigma levels.
- Fellowship alumni reported lower overall stigma scores.
- Attitude and help-seeking stigma scores were also lower.
- Practice-area disadvantage was not associated with stigma.
- Prospective studies are needed to assess effects on care.
Researchers surveyed 154 licensed US primary care clinicians in 2024: 75 alumni of the Train New Trainers Primary Care Psychiatry Fellowship and 79 clinicians who had not completed a similar program. The one-year fellowship provides structured continuing education. Mental health stigma was measured using the 15-item Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers, including attitude, disclosure and help-seeking, and social-distance subscales. Practice-area disadvantage was assessed using the Area Deprivation Index.
Fellowship alumni had significantly lower total stigma scores than non-alumni (p<0.0001), as well as lower scores for stigmatizing attitudes (p=0.0002) and stigma related to disclosure and help-seeking (p=0.0001). The abstract reports no significant differences in stigma by the socioeconomic disadvantage of the practice location.
The findings support further evaluation of behavioral health training as a possible way to address clinician stigma in primary care. However, this comparison establishes an association, not that the fellowship caused lower stigma; the source does not report randomization or baseline stigma scores. The study measured clinician-reported attitudes, and prospective research is needed to assess effects on care or patient outcomes.
In practice
Among primary care clinicians in this US study, alumni of a one-year primary care psychiatry fellowship reported lower mental health stigma than clinicians without similar training. This is an observational comparison, so it does not show that the fellowship caused the difference or that training changes clinical behavior, access, or patient outcomes. The findings may support further prospective evaluation of structured behavioral health education, but do not establish a practice change.
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Journal of General Internal Medicine: Mental Health Stigma in Primary Care: Association with Participation in a Behavioral Health Training Program ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.