On the frontier: Exploring rural psychologist practice in integrated behavioral health care.

Abstract

Research on psychologists in integrated behavioral health care (IBHC) remains sparse (McDaniel et al., 2014) and appears non-existent for rurally located psychologists. A study of doctoral-level licensed psychologists practicing in rurally located IBHC settings was conducted. The study had three main objectives: to understand the nature of the work of rural psychologists in IBHC, to explore what impacts the rural and IBHC setting have on psychologists, and to identify the characteristics that psychologists perceive as important for working effectively in rurally located IBHC settings. Eight participants completed in-person semi-structured interviews. A qualitative methodological approach using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) (Hill et al., 2005) focused on accumulating information-rich data that may be relevant (Packer, 2010)