Agency Description

Palomar Health provides a 1 year 40-hour/week full-time internship that has training opportunities on the Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit (BHU), Inpatient Gero-Psychiatric Unit (GPU) and Outpatient Chemical Dependency Intensive Outpatient Program (Recovery Center at Poway). Internships at this site begin the end of August or early September. We serve acute adults and seniors who are having an acute exacerbation of their mental illness and substance use. The BHU and GPU are locked and serve voluntary and involuntary patients. Patients are stabilized on medications, attend groups, participate in individual, family, and activity therapies to stabilize functioning. Interns work closely with a multi-disciplinary treatment team to prepare patients for a successful transition back to the community. The Recovery Center at Poway is an Intensive Outpatient Program addressing patients who have substance use disorders. Treatment includes intake assessment, group therapy, individual therapy, and family therapy as well as an alumni group. Interns have opportunities to provide psychotherapy, assessment, and consultation services to the Emergency Rooms and medical floors at Palomar Health hospitals as well.

Agency Mission

The mission of Palomar Health is to heal, comfort, and promote health in the communities we serve.

Population

Acute and chronic mentally ill adults and seniors: psychotic disorders, mood disorders, dually-diagnosed, and personality-disordered populations are the most common. On the Gero-Psychiatric Unit, some of the patients have neurocognitive disorders. Patients at the Recovery Center at Poway have Substance Use Disorders as their primary diagnoses.

Staff (#, Degree, Prof. Lic.)

# of Psychologists: 2

# of Psychiatrists: 10

# of MFT: 2

# of CTRS: 2

# of RN: 6

# of MSW: 2

Required days and times

Typical work hours are Mon-Fri 8:00am to 4:30pm.

Training and Education Offered

All interns attend Palomar's New Employee Orientation on their first day. Interns then spend their first day in the department orienting with Supervisor. Interns will shadow other clinicians doing the groups and then will facilitate groups independently or with a Co-Therapist. Weekly didactic clinical trainings are provided for interns. Clinical inservices are provided for all staff and interns. Annual clinical, cultural, and safety competencies are required of all staff and interns. Professional training is designed to foster professional competence with a variety of clinical populations and pathologies, assessment, biopsychosocial assessments, develop psychotherapy skills, and risk-assessment skills. The goal is to build the intern’s ability to function independently in preparation for state licensure, and to enable ongoing critical self-evaluation as a basis for professional development. Interns must be able to work well as part of a team, yet also take responsibility for their own caseload.

X-Cultural Training

Responsibilities

Group psychotherapy doing both process work and didactic psychoeducational therapy; individual, family therapy, and milieu therapy; biopsychosocial assessments, risk assessments; documentation of all therapy sessions and clinical contacts. Psychological testing is available. Must be able to work well as part of a team.

Prerequisites

Application Procedures

Additional Comments

Interns chosen will be hired as temporary employees, will have to pass Background Checks and a health clearance via our hospital's Human Resources department within 30 days of start date. These are done after the hospital and school have signed an affiliation agreement (contract). The predoctoral intern positions are paid $15.00 / hour, but offer no healthcare benefits.