Dual family medicine, psychiatry training makes program director nimble

Then she met a family physician leading a mobile outreach program for patients experiencing homelessness and another offering clinics for migrant workers at a racetrack. Jindal was intrigued.

“I thought, ‘Maybe this is the way I want to practice to have that breadth and also have a sense of community connection and community care,’” she said. “That’s what family medicine is, recognizing different ways to take care of communities.”

Dual training in family medicine and mental health

Jindal still was thinking about how to offer care differently when she applied for residency, matching at the combined family medicine and psychiatry residency at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine.

“I wanted to work with marginalized or underserved populations, through the lens of primary care,” she said. “Oftentimes people with mental health issues, particularly serious and persistent mental illness, have a hard time accessing care. Some people will seek primary care but may not seek psychiatrists, and vice versa. Being fully boarded and able to provide care and services in family medicine and psychiatry made me a more well-rounded physician able to take care of patients in any setting.”

Training the next generation

After three years at Denver Health in Colorado, Jindal returned to Iowa City as an associate program director and was promoted to program director in 2023. The five-year, combined program has expanded from two residents per class to four in the past two years.

“I really enjoy being able to work with learners, whether that’s residents, fellows or medical students, and to provide education for mental health care and primary care,” said Jindal, who also is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. “Academic medicine allows you to be innovative and creative. One of the things that’s been interesting for me is thinking about, ‘How can we examine a problem, and then what resources do we need to solve it?’ That’s something that can exist in a lot of places, but academic medicine has some unique resources to be able to approach problems differently.”

Integrating mental health in primary care

Jindal said her patient panel has more depression and anxiety needs than the average family medicine clinic.

“People can see that I do the mental health care work, so they often seek me out for that,” said Jindal, who said she still sees kids and offers prenatal care. “It’s intended to be bread-and-butter family medicine.”

She’s also the medical director of a behavioral health access center and teaches at an outpatient psychiatry clinic co-located within a primary care center.

“The combined training has allowed me to do a wide variety of work and be nimble in a lot of different settings,” said Jindal, a member of the Iowa AFP. “I get to be both a primary care physician and a psychiatrist and understand the worlds of both. We have people who go into perinatal mental health work, and they feel comfortable with prenatal care. We have people who go into addiction medicine who can do both the medical care and that addiction med care. We have people who go and run med-psych units. There is a lot people can do with this kind of training. It doesn’t mean you have to do it all, but you can. Or you can get really focused in interesting niches.”

A lifelong passion for patient education

Jindal realized early on that she liked educating people about their health. She often accompanied her mother, a dietician, to health fairs as an elementary school student.

“It started with me handing out brochures,” she said, “but then I started giving examples of what I liked to eat for my after-school snacks that were good substitutions they could consider. Of course, people were amused to see this kid talking about health information. I liked talking to people about their health and empowering them to be more mindful about their health. I still carry that with me.”