2015-2016 APPIC Internship Interview Thread

[Hope4Grad]

Anyone familiar with/moving to the West Chester, PA or Philly area?

I lived in Philly while working as a research assistant at UPenn before grad school. I love that city. I would recommend moving to where your commute will be easiest. Seriously. Great city, bad traffic.

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[docma]

I have a different take on this. I completed a prac at a CMHC and loved it. This is COMMUNITY mental health, and if you couldn't tell from my all caps, emphasis on Community. You will learn so much!! The deal with CMHC's is that you see whomever walks through the door. How exciting is that?!?! You are going to be exposed to a very broad spectrum of clients, with every diagnosis/diagnoses under the sun. It's a tremendous time to take it all in. You will not be coddled nor will there be much cherry-picking of clients, but is that what you really want for Internship? You must be self-motivated to learn about all these people's diagnoses on your own, but what's it going to be like when you are in the real world and out of school practicing on your own? You will be prepared after this experience! You will learn a lot about intersectionality (between race, SES, gender spectrum, etc). There is no area of concern you won't see at a CMHC. Your supervisor will be great, will stink, or somewhere in between just like you have had to deal with so far and would have to deal with no matter where you went - there are no guarantees no matter where you go on that front. The worst part about it is the paperwork, but you'll get into a rhythm with that and you'll handle it. CMHC's are the de facto psych hospitals, aside from jail or prison, since across the USA there has been massive shutdowns and privatization of psych hospitals. You will learn a lot about the current system and political climate of public mental health, as well, and if you are at all interested in public policy vis a vis mental health you will be very informed. It's really being in the trenches, and that is a great learning experience no matter what you do after. I encourage you to read some of the history about how CMHC's got started and why (under the Kennedy administration). Do some research on this - it's got it's own venerable roots in the idea of honoring the cultural background of the individuals you treat and the local clinical scientist model. It's not just about volume and seeing as many people as possible. CMHC's exist to provide treatment to everyone who needs it - not just the wealthy (private hospitals and/or private practices that often don't take insurance) or the extremely/unable to take care of themselves mentally ill (public/gov't hospitals). CMHC's exist to capture everyone between those extremes who need help, and no surprise a lot of people need help. Think about why you got in this field in the first place and tap into a sense of mission. That ought to excite you - and after all it's only a year!

I'd endorse this view of the value of CMHC settings as excellent training sites due to the diversity and complexity of cases and the interdisciplinary exposure--as well as the opportunities to observe and to do other things psychologists do in these settings: administration/management, policy research, advocacy, etc. While 60 sounds large, I am guessing it would include clients seen across a range of services and certainly not all in one week. In a CMHC you would likely be seeing clients in an emergency room/crisis unit, in groups, on intake, maybe in a custody setting for assessment, as well as having individual clients. In our setting interns typically have 10-12 individual therapy cases, responsibility for 2 groups and a 4 hour crisis shift or a 4 hour outreach/engagement project. And this is balanced by a lot of individual and group supervision plus interdisciplinary consultation.

 

[temppsych123]

Hi! Can you post the link on here? Thanks!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...estions-for-internship.1186711/#post-17502075

 

[schoolpsychlove]

Thank you so much for the advice!

 

[Hope4Grad]

Does anyone know if there is a clearinghouse phase (basically Phase III), and if so where the sites are posted that failed to match during Phase II? I'm just curious...

 

[OneNeuroDoctor]

Does anyone know if there is a clearinghouse phase (basically Phase III), and if so where the sites are posted that failed to match during Phase II? I'm just curious...

It's called Post Match Vacancy Service. There will be a link on the APPIC Match Portal.

 

[Ms. Freud]

I'd endorse this view of the value of CMHC settings as excellent training sites due to the diversity and complexity of cases and the interdisciplinary exposure--as well as the opportunities to observe and to do other things psychologists do in these settings: administration/management, policy research, advocacy, etc. While 60 sounds large, I am guessing it would include clients seen across a range of services and certainly not all in one week. In a CMHC you would likely be seeing clients in an emergency room/crisis unit, in groups, on intake, maybe in a custody setting for assessment, as well as having individual clients. In our setting interns typically have 10-12 individual therapy cases, responsibility for 2 groups and a 4 hour crisis shift or a 4 hour outreach/engagement project. And this is balanced by a lot of individual and group supervision plus interdisciplinary consultation.

Thank you both for your feedback. I guess my concern was about being overwhelmed with so many cases during internship because you want to be able to dedicate a sufficient amount of time to learning about them and if there are so many, you likely cannot do so. I definitely do see the value in the experience in terms of exposure to a diverse population and having a "real world" experience.

 

[r16g]

Do all applicants typically continue tracking hours after applications are completed (and you successfully match via Phase 1 or 2)?

 

[temppsych123]

Do all applicants typically continue tracking hours after applications are completed (and you successfully match via Phase 1 or 2)?

It's a good idea, as you'll want a total hours count for licensure. Different states have different requirements (e.g. some count pre-internship hours, many don't), but it doesn't hurt to keep track! Also for eventual job applications, if you might want to say you have X hours experience working with Y population or Z modality (or whatever it is that you're doing at the moment).