Integrative Care: Primary Care and Mental Health

The Integrative Care network is an online professional learning community designed to increase the knowledge and implementation of integrative care involving primary and mental health care across Wyoming.

Integrative care is the care a patient experiences as a result of a team of primary care and behavioral health clinicians, working together with patients and families, using a systematic and cost-effective approach to provide patient-centered care for a defined population. This care may address mental health and substance abuse conditions, health behaviors (including their contribution to chronic medical illnesses), life stressors and crises, stress-related physical symptoms, and ineffective patterns of health care utilization.

Network participants include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, social workers, counselors and others involved in primary care and mental health services.

UW ECHO in Integrative Care is a collaboration with the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, with funding by a generous grant from the McMurry Foundation.

View our comprehensive clinical toolkit that includes curated links to evidence-based resources, screening tools, and practical worksheets to support implementation in clinical practice.

Clinical Toolkit

Session information

Sessions are held on Wednesdays, bi-weekly from 12:00-1:00 pm MT via Zoom.  

Add the Spring 2026 Sessions to Your Calendar

Register for Fall 2025-Spring 2026 Sessions

Access Previous Session Materials and Recordings

Sessions

ECHO Mental Health session logo

This foundational session establishes why integrated mental healthcare matters in Wyoming's healthcare landscape and equips PCPs with essential frameworks for safe, effective psychiatric prescribing. We'll explore the shift from siloed to integrated care and establish clear scope of practice boundaries for mental health management in primary care settings. Participants will learn core psychopharmacological principles including informed consent, documentation standards, and medication management guidelines. We'll also introduce standardized screening tools that support person-centered assessment while moving beyond symptom checklists to consider cultural context and the whole person.

 

Presenter: Samantha Baker, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Clinical Assistant Professor and Chair of Mental Health and Integrated Care at UW FWWSON

 

Presenter: Amy Rieser, MPA, Community Outreach Coordinator - Training & Evaluation, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface Master Trainer; Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND)

 

Presenter: Amy Rieser, MPA, Community Outreach Coordinator - Training & Evaluation, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface Master Trainer; Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND)

This session participants will learn about adult ADHD, how to diagnose and treat it, and common risks and benefits of treatment. This presentation will also go over clinical pearls that will help you recognize and differentiate ADHD from other diagnoses and influences.

 

Presenter: Sherra StClair, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Associate Chief Nurse Practitioner, Talkiatry

Providers across disciplines encounter frequent complaints of poor sleep, persistent fatigue, and difficulty concentrating - symptoms that may represent primary psychiatric conditions, secondary manifestations of medical illness, or lifestyle factors. This session provides a systematic approach to these overlapping presentations. We'll cover evidence-based insomnia treatment emphasizing behavioral interventions while avoiding problematic medications, differential diagnosis for fatigue considering psychiatric and medical contributors, and a thoughtful approach to concentration concerns that includes ADHD, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and other factors. The goal is to equip providers with frameworks that prevent reflexive prescribing while addressing patients' genuine distress.
 
Presenter: Samantha Baker, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Clinical Assistant Professor and Chair of Mental Health and Integrated Care at UW FWWSON

This final session addresses two challenging areas that often leave providers feeling overwhelmed: working with personality disorders (particularly borderline personality disorder) and recognizing/managing disordered eating. Rather than expecting providers to diagnose personality disorders, we'll focus on recognizing patterns, setting appropriate boundaries, maintaining therapeutic relationships with "difficult" patients, and understanding what's reasonable to manage versus refer. The disordered eating segment leverages upstream, food-as-medicine approaches while teaching recognition of medical complications requiring urgent intervention. This session models how to bring curiosity, compassion, and structure to complex presentations.
 
Presenter: Samantha Baker, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Clinical Assistant Professor and Chair of Mental Health and Integrated Care at UW FWWSON

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