Since finishing the Combined UCSD Family Medicine/Psychiatry Residency in July 2014, Kelley has hit the ground running at a dynamic Federally Qualified Health Center in South Bay, San Diego. Imperial Beach Community Clinic is a two-clinic system serving the uninsured population living closest to the San Diego-Tijuana border. Kelley is the director of their new Behavioral Health Department, and their team is focusing on integrating mental health services into a busy primary care practice. Therapy and psychiatric services are all offered on site in the clinics where the patients have their medical home and treatment plans are coordinated with primary care providers. They are implementing short-term evidence-based models focusing on recovery from mental illness.
Kelley practices 50% family medicine and 50% psychiatry. Many of her primary care patients are referrals from colleagues at county mental health clinics for their annual physicals and preventive exams. It has been exciting for her to be designing and implementing organizational change, and her time at UCSD as chief resident prepared her very well for this.
She continues to work for UCSD Department of Family Medicine and Public Health as a clinical instructor once a week at a unique training site located within Southwest High School. She also attends family medicine residents from UCSD and Scripps during their adolescent health rotation. At that site, they see teenagers for everything from mental health concerns to sports physicals to family planning. Kelley has been thrilled to keep a foot in academia and teaching while being able to step outside her community clinic and see teens and families within the school.