Keywords: continuity of care, mental health care services, mhGAP, readiness, primary health care, general practice, family medicine, early career physicians, Ukraine, qualitative research

Background:

Mental health conditions are chronic and often coexist with somatic diseases, requiring continuity of care in primary health care. The WHO mhGAP programme supports primary care physicians in managing these conditions, yet implementation remains limited despite 157,000 trained physicians in Ukraine. Internship represents a critical window for habit formation, shaping physicians' long-term clinical behaviour. Limited evidence exists on how prepared early-career GP/FM interns are to apply mhGAP and maintain continuity of mental health care services.

Research questions:

How do GP/FM interns perceive their readiness to apply WHO mhGAP recommendations, and how do capability, opportunity, and motivation factors influence this readiness?

Method:

This proposed qualitative study will use semi-structured individual interviews. A purposive sample of 15-20 participants (or until data saturation is reached) 1st- and 2nd-year GP/FM interns who completed online WHO mhGAP training will be recruited from Bukovinian State Medical University to capture variation in exposure and context. Interviews (40–45 minutes) will explore experiences, perceived preparedness and contextual influences on continuity of care. Data will be analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019), informed by the COM-B model to understand how capability, opportunity and motivation influence readiness to implement mhGAP and ensure continuity of care. Ethical approval will be obtained from the institutional ethics committee.

Results:

The study will identify key facilitators and barriers to readiness, specifically examining clinical supervisors, role-modelling, professional identity and confidence in shaping readiness. Findings will highlight how training gaps and system-level constraints may disrupt continuity of care, while supportive educational and team-based models may strengthen it.

Conclusions:

Understanding interns' readiness to apply mhGAP provides insight into strengthening continuity of mental care health services in primary health care now and in the future. Findings may inform the design of internship curricula, supervision models and integrated care approaches for continuous, coordinated and patient-centred care.

Points for discussion:

Which COM-B domain (Capability, Opportunity, or Motivation) represents the biggest bottleneck for Ukrainian interns?

How should GP/FM training programmes structure mental health education to develop interns' capacity for delivering continuous, coordinated mental health care?

What systemic and organisational supports are essential to enable trainee physicians to maintain continuity of mental health care services within the Ukrainian primary health care context?