California Psychology Internship CouncilGateways CONREP Forensic Community Treatment Program
(213) 368-5400
Agency Description
The Conditional Release Program (CONREP) is the California Department of State Hospitals' (DSH) statewide system of community based treatment and supervision services for judicially committed individuals (PC 1026, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity; PC 1370, Incompetent to Stand Trial; WIC 6316, Civilly Committed Mentally Disordered Sex Offender; PC 2972, Civilly Committed Mentally Disordered Offender; and PC 2962, Mentally Disordered Offender Parolees). Each county is required to have a Conditional Release Program, either a private or county provider, which is contracted with DSH to provide outpatient treatment. Gateways CONREP provides these court-mandated outpatient services to men and women between the ages 18 and 64 in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Gateways CONREP Administration is based in Los Angeles, California, where we have approximately 95-100 of the above-mentioned individuals gradually re-integrating into the community through a level of care system. Gateways CONREP provides training and ongoing supervision to all employees based on the skills they require to achieve our mission. Resources to achieve this goal include DSH Policies and Procedures, adherence to the California Penal Code, the Gateways Los Angeles CONREP Policy and Procedure manual, and consultation with CONREP Operations in Sacramento, California. Gateways CONREP employees are also oriented to and trained to utilize Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Center policies, procedures, and resources for hospital administration, safety, fiscal management, human resources, and employment practices. Gateways CONREP utilizes an integrated system of community treatment services; active case management; treatment and rehabilitation to enhance clients’ functioning within society; ongoing clinical assessments to evaluate effectiveness of treatment; rehospitalization and revocation when indicated; and liaison with state hospitals, community agencies, and outpatient programs for continuity of care.Agency Mission
The Mission of Gateways CONREP is to protect the public through the reduction, if not prevention, of reoffense by specified forensic patients. Our Mission is accomplished by providing standardized, intensive outpatient mental health treatment, supervision, and assessment services to this at-risk population as they reintegrate into society.Population
Gateways CONREP services adults from 18 to 80+ who are judicially committed (e.g., PC 1026, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity) or under the auspice of the Board of Parole Hearings (e.g., PC 2962, Mentally Disordered Offenders). The majority of these individuals discharged from a state hospital and now live under Gateways CONREP's supervision in board and care facilities within Los Angeles, though some individuals also live more independently throughout the entire Los Angeles County area. Gateways CONREP's population represents many cultural and ethnic backgrounds--the majority having limited financial resources and receiving government assistance, while some are undocumented immigrants who are funded by the State. Most of our clients have a severe and chronic mental illness, including both an affective and psychotic component. In addition, many of these individuals have a secondary substance abuse diagnosis as well as characterological deficits and personality disorder diagnoses.Staff (#, Degree, Prof. Lic.)
# of Psychologists: 5
# of Psychiatrists: 1
OVERALL Match Process Internship Info
| PREDOC POSITIONS | NUMBER UNFUNDED | NUMBER FUNDED | ANNUAL STIPEND | START DATE | END DATE | HOURS PER WEEK | HOURS PER YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half-time | 0 | 0 | 08/27/2018 | 08/30/2019 | 0 | 0 | |
| Full-time | 0 | 2 | $5000/year | 08/27/2018 | 08/30/2019 | 40 | 2080 |
| PREDOC POSITIONS | IND. SUPERVISION HRS/WK | GRP. SUPERVISION HRS/WK |
|---|---|---|
| Half-time | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Full-time | 2.00 | 2.00 |
CURRENT Match Phase Needs
This Data is Informational Only. The Official Track and Available Position data is provided on the InternFit platform.
| TRACK NAME | TYPE | NUMBER OF INTERNS |
|---|---|---|
| Single Track | FT | 2 |
Required days and times
M-F: 8:30 AM - 5:30 PMTraining and Education Offered
Gateways CONREP's objective is to provide the training, supervision, and modeling necessary to develop competent and professional psychologists. We seek to develop confident practitioners with both clinical skills as well as the ability to evaluate and conceptualize a case from a forensic perspective, drawing from violence risk assessment tools and ideologies. The Forensic Clinician is a difficult role to effectively assume, as one must empathize with clients who are severely mentally ill, often substance abusers, and have committed, in many cases, heinous offenses. While advocating for the needs of one's clients, the Forensic Clinician must never lose site of the individual's known risk factors and precursors to dangerousness and reoffense. Thus, through didactic trainings, shadowing of court testimony, state hospital visits, case conferences, and ongoing supervision, it is our hope that the pre-doctoral intern will further the mission of Gateways CONREP; that is, reducing, if not preventing, reoffense, while safely and effectively reintegrating this specific forensic mental health population into the community.X-Cultural Training
Opportunties:
This internship seeks to develop an appreciation for the provision of service to a diverse client population in regard to age, ethnicity, language of preference, socioeconomic status/history, education, and the mental disorder at hand, sexual orientation, and gender identity, among other areas of variation. Both Gateways CONREP's clients and staff come from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life, allowing for a broad range of multicultural training. Additionally, in this setting, staff provide services to a population which is traditionally underserved and stigmatized, not only secondary to their severe mental illness, but also due to their offender status. Gateways CONREP strives to reinforce the necessity of providing high quality services to such groups, to ensure that one's background and culture is always taken into consideration when treatment planning, that the individual is viewed from a bio-psychosocial perspective, and that the clinician recognizes and addresses known biases that can impede efforts to advance the welfare of our clients. Of note, Gateways CONREP contracts with translation services to provide clients with therapy in their preferred languages, and several staff members speak Spanish, allowing for Spanish-speaking individual therapy and group therapy. This internship seeks to achieve the aforementioned by offering both formal and informal training on multicultural issues throughout the training year.Language(s) staff can use in the delivery of clinical services:
Spanish, Mandarin, RussianResponsibilities
The pre-doctoral intern will carry a caseload of 8-10 individual therapy clients, who will be seen anywhere from 4 times per month to twice monthly, based on their level of care within the program. They will be responsible for writing session notes for each individual therapy session, as well as conducting monthly collateral contacts with the individual's family, board and care manager, 12 Step sponsor, etc. The pre-doctoral intern will also lead approximately 8 hours of group per month. There will be a degree of case management the intern participates in to ensure their client's medical needs, as well as other needs (school, employment, hygiene, etc.) are met. The pre-doctoral intern may have the opportunity to participate in home visits in the field with paraprofessional staff to conduct in-the-field sessions as well as room searches. Because this is a forensic site, the pre-doctoral intern will also be writing court reports on each of their clients. They will be tasked with liaising with court personnel, including court clerks, Deputy Public Defenders, private defense attorneys, and Deputy District Attorneys, as well as Parole Agents and other personnel from the Board of Parole Hearings. Depending on the pre-doctoral intern's caseload, it is possible he or she may be called upon to testify as either a fact witness or, in some instances, an expert witness. Also a large part of the forensic focus of this site includes monitoring and supervising the pre-doctoral intern's caseload as they integrate into the community. Thus, the intern will be responsible for overseeing the client's schedule, searching the client's possessions (e.g., cell phone, backpack) when clinically indicated, and monitoring the client's contacts in the community. Lastly, the intern will have the opportunity to travel to the state hospital, conducting routine progress report evaluations for individuals awaiting community placement.Prerequisites
Required/Desired Experience:
Required: Student must be enrolled in a doctoral level psychology program and must have their master's degree. It is required they have experience working with individuals who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Student must also have experience with or schooling in substance abuse. Preferred: Forensic experience, working with offender/court-mandated population. It is preferred the intern has experience working in a community outpatient setting. Preferred training in assessment (i.e., risk, personality, psychodiagnostic)Brief Description of Requirements:
Required: Student must be enrolled in a doctoral level psychology program and must have their master's degree. It is required they have experience working with individuals who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Student must also have experience with or schooling in substance abuse.Application Procedures
The initial screening process of the intern cohort will be based on written application materials and letters of recommendations. It is expected the intern provide a cover letter; updated Curriculum Vitae; two de-identified writing samples/assessment, risk assessments, or case conceptualizations; and three professional references/letters of recommendations. Based on the aforementioned, the intern applicant will be invited for an in-person interview, during which they will be asked to provide responses to a series of vignettes. The applicant will also sit for a brief writing test to demonstrate their ability to write, conceptualize, and treatment plan "on the fly." Once an offer is extended, the intern applicant must complete a Livescan (finger printing), pass a background check, obtain medical clearance, and pass a urinalysis exam.
Interview Process:
The intern applicant will be invited for an in-person interview, with two-to-three clinical staff members, including the Internship Director, during which they will be asked routine interview questions as well as to provide responses to a series of vignettes. The applicant will also sit for a brief writing test to demonstrate their ability to write, conceptualize, and treatment plan "on the fly." They will then be required to meet, briefly, with some or all of the current post-doctoral Clinicians for a round-table discussion/extended interview.What we are looking for:
Gateways CONREP is looking for internship applicants who are motivated, flexible, and feel comfortable in a fast-paced, yet highly structured forensic setting. As such, the applicant must be open to the concept of providing forensic supervision--taking a sometimes intrusive stance in our clients' lives--setting firm boundaries and modeling prosocial behaviors and appropriate, collaborative relationships. We are also looking for interns who are interested in providing long-term treatment, with an element of crisis intervention, rather than short-term, brief therapy. The work of a Forensic Clinician is multi-faceted and requires much organization, flexibility, and time management skills, so we seek internship applicants who possess or are looking to foster/hone said qualities. Lastly, as the consequences of our work is far-reaching, the intern must be open to direct, constructive feedback when it comes to assessing and mitigating risk.Additional application docs required (if any)
- Experience
- Transcripts - Graduate
- Other - two de-identified writing samples (e.g., case conceptualization, assessment, risk assessment, etc.)
- County - Los Angeles
- Contact Person Title - Clinical Director
- Contact Person - Nicole Paglione, Psy.D.
- Dir. of Training Title - Clinical Director
- Dir. of Training - Nicole Paglione, Psy.D.
- Last Updated - 15 January 2019
- Participating in CURRENT Match process - Yes
- CAPIC Program ID - I-379
- CAPIC Member Since - 2018
- Region - So. Cal
- Statuses approved by CAPIC
- Half-Time 1 Year - No
- Half-Time 2 Years - No
- Full-Time 1 Year - Yes
- CAPIC Internship Types Available:
- Half-Time 1 Year - No
- Half-Time 2 Years - No
- Full-Time 1 Year - Yes
Training/Clinical Services Offered
- Assessment
- Crisis
- Family
- Group
- Individual
- Inpatient
- Long Term
- Outpatient
- Psych. Testing