Clinical Child Psychology Internship

The mission of the internship program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is to train future child psychologists who are well-prepared to promote the adaptive development of children from diverse backgrounds. Specifically, the program aims to prepare advanced doctoral-level students for entry level practice, and to take leadership roles in developing, providing, evaluating, and disseminating effective psychological services for the diverse population of children and families with health and/or mental health needs. The program is committed to preparing psychologists as leaders in the field, engaged in clinical practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, advocacy and scientific investigation.

This project is designed to prepare psychology interns and fellows in child and adolescent psychiatry to manage and prevent mental health problems among children from medically underserved communities (MUCs). The focus of the project is to prepare trainees for careers that will benefit underserved populations, with a particular focus on children with or at risk for mental health conditions (ages 2 to 18 years), especially those from underrepresented minority and low-income groups. Consistent with the mission of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the project is dedicated to the preparation of leaders in providing clinical care and developing programs that will serve as national models of service delivery. The project emphasizes the preparation of professionals for culturally effective practice in the community, in particular in urban primary care practices and schools. In addition, the project is designed to further develop strategies to recruit and match trainees who are highly committed to addressing the needs of children with or at risk for mental health conditions in MUCs. Funding has been requested for two additional Intern positions, recruited into a newly developed primary care and school mental health track.

A major goal of the project is to develop and implement experiential training rotations in urban primary care and schools that will prepare interns in the primary care and school psychology track for service in underserved community settings. As such, psychology interns recruited to the primary care and school mental health track will spend at least 50 percent of their clinical activities in The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia West Philadelphia Primary Care and Juniata Park Academy sites. The school site involves co-training with child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. Clinical training is complemented by participation in a progressive series of didactic seminars. Each seminar series focuses on issues related to individual and cultural diversity, particularly working within medically underserved communities.

Other goals include:

1. Create a specialty track in the psychology internship program in primary care and school mental health focused on developing leaders in providing clinical care and developing innovative programs of service for children from MUCs
2. Prepare psychology interns on the primary care and school mental health track in assessment, intervention, consultation, and prevention competencies that will enable them to be highly effective in providing services to children from MUCs
3. Improve the competencies of all psychology interns and child psychiatry fellows in service provision to children from MUCs
4. Refine methods of psychology intern recruitment and selection to ensure the enrollment of two highly qualified interns who are strongly dedicated to careers of service provision and program development that will benefit children from MUCs
5. Develop a sustainability plan that will enable the psychology internship program to continue providing training to interns in the primary care and school mental health track