Mental health referral patterns by family medicine educators

Directors of Family Medicine residency programs were surveyed to ascertain which mental health professionals are utilized to deliver psychosocial treatments. Family practitioners themselves are frequent providers for a wide variety of psychosocial treatments. Psychiatrists are referred patients for activites that are traditionally within the realm of psychiatric treatments such as management of chronically psychotic patients, inpatient hospitalization, and utilitization of antidepressant medication. These patterns are important as they may reflect future clinical behavior of Family Medicine residents.