Pandemic Productivity: Student-Run Free Clinic Integrates Behavioral Health in the Wake of COVID-19

Abstract

With the sudden onset of COVID-19, provision of medical and mental health services have rapidly evolved to incorporate virtual visits as an essential service [1,2,3,4,5]. Medical education also had to rapidly adapt to an online platform as students were displaced from clinical sites [6,7,8,9,10]. Our educational curriculum under development in a student-run free clinic—integration of behavioral health services including screening, brief intervention, and referral for treatment—had to be suddenly altered to accommodate displaced fourth-year medical students. This report describes the rapid adaptation of primary care in-person free clinic services to integrated, virtual, and telephone-based visits to (1) continue providing healthcare to underserved patients, (2) fulfill project goals for behavioral health integration, and (3) create meaningful clinical educational opportunities for students suddenly removed from clinical settings.