An intern's time is divided among four main roles.  These include:

1. Core placement in a community outpatient or specialty treatment program (primary placement)
2. Conducting psychological evaluations
3. Juvenile justice consultation/intervention
4. Receiving supervision and training

Over the course of the internship, interns function in an increasingly independent manner.  By the end of the internship, interns will function as regular staff with an active caseload, evaluations, and regular consultation responsibilities.  Of course, for interns the primary emphasis is on training. 

Below is a description of the primary and Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) placements currently expected for the 2006-2007 training year.  It should be noted that these placements change from year to year, but continue to emphasize the overarching goals of the program to provide varying levels of service (i.e., outpatient, day treatment, and residential) to children and families in diverse focus areas (i.e., abuse/neglect, foster care, infant/toddler evaluation, treatment of preschoolers).

Child and Family Mental Health Program (C & F) – 3 Interns (55% time)

This program operates at the Alberta, Gresham and Powell Branches, and serves a low-income population in transition from rural to urban in East Multnomah County.  In addition, some outpatient services are delivered at other program sites.

The C & F program admits more than 3000 families per year.  Clients served in this program present with a variety of behavioral and emotional concerns.  These concerns include but are not limited to the following:  attachment difficulties, dysfunctional family communications, oppositional behaviors, school failure, depression, suicidal behavior, runaways, physical/sexual abuse or neglect, substance abuse, and placement in foster care.  Interns typically provide family therapy, play therapy, parent-infant psychotherapy, group therapy, parent consultation, consultation to other professionals, and/or case management services.  Clients are often seen in short-term formats including group treatment, but some may need to be seen individually for the duration of the internship year.

Interns' client loads and activities vary depending on the percentage of time they are assigned to this program, typically not exceeding 55% (full-time clinic staff average about 24 direct contact hours of service weekly) which may include: individual, group and family therapy, case management, and 8-10 intakes. This may require working 1-2 evenings per week; interns, however, are not expected to be “on call.”

Edgefield

Edgefield Children’s Services Day Treatment Program – 2 interns (40%time/20% time outpatient = 60%)

Edgefield has been in existence since 1966, and became a member of the Morrison family of programs in 2001.  These intensive Day and Residential psychiatric treatment programs serve children ages 6-12 years old with severe mental and behavioral disorders.  More than 50% of these children have biological family who are actively engaged in the treatment process whenever possible.  The majority of the children served are boys.  About 25% of the children served are ethnic minorities or mixed race children.  This is a larger proportion than the community in general.  The residential program serves the most disturbed children in the state short of those requiring long-term hospitalization.  Treatment programming includes special education services, individual child therapy, milieu treatment, family therapy, group therapy, parent consultation, and socialization opportunities.  Edgefield also participates in the state’s Mental Health Pilot Project, which focuses on providing case management and supportive services to transition the children back to their communities.  At Edgefield, interns are assigned clinical responsibility for three cases (providing both child and family therapy).  They also consult with the treatment teams serving these cases, conduct psychological evaluations and intake assessments, and participate in running therapeutic groups.

Morrison contracts with the State's Department of Human Services to conduct psychological assessments, and also provides evaluations of its own ongoing clients.  The written products reflect our philosophical emphasis on an empirical approach to assessment, using procedures and instruments which meet acceptable standards of reliability and validity.  Priority is given to the following assessment populations/issues:

• The diagnosis of present or incipient mental illness in child and adolescent populations.
• The appropriateness of a child's placement with the natural or foster family or within a residential setting.
• Diagnostic assessment of parents to rule in/out mental illness.
• Dispositional recommendations for children who have been abused.
• Dispositional recommendations for delinquent adolescents convicted of crimes who are diagnosed as having serious mental disturbance.

Interns are expected to complete at least ten comprehensive batteries during the internship year.  Intensive staff supervision and support are provided along with a year long training seminar on evaluations. 

Juvenile Justice Activities (approximately 20% time)

Morrison has had a consultation contract with the MacLaren and Hillcrest State Training Schools for many years.  Interns provide training and consultation to paraprofessional school staff and psychological evaluations of delinquent adolescents to guide treatment planning.  These evaluations are brief and focused on the question of how that treatment unit can best help that particular youth.  Consultation often involves helping unit staff manage program development, respond to a particularly disruptive youth, or improve staff teamwork.  Interns are also given the opportunity to facilitate therapy groups as well.  Weekly training and supervision meetings with our on-site consulting forensic psychologist help prepare interns for these tasks.   All interns spend one day per week at either MacLaren or Hillcrest Training School.

Supervision and Training (10% and primary placement time)

Interns receive exposure to a variety of theoretical orientations (structural family therapy, social learning, psychodynamic, interpersonal, cognitive problem-solving, case management, and community-prevention).  The emphasis of the training is on delivering quality, accountable service in the complex system of a community mental health organization.  Interns can expect two and a half to three hours of direct, one-to-one supervision and two and a half to three hours of group supervision per week.  Videotape and direct observation facilities are employed in supervision.

Supervision evaluation is a continuous and mutual process.  Interns and supervisors review a monthly tracking guide to ensure that interns are performing at the agreed upon designated level.  At the end of each quarter, interns use an intern evaluation form to rate themselves on program competencies.  Supervisors also evaluate interns on a similar evaluation form. The intern and the supervisor then share and discuss the intern’s evaluation results. The intern and the supervisor also review the intern’s individualized learning plan on a quarterly basis.  The intern and the supervisor work together to help the intern to continue or to improve upon the intern’s overall performance and to meet his/her individual goals. Informal feedback discussions take place on an ongoing and frequent basis in weekly supervision.

Between three and five hours per week are reserved for seminars.  Interns meet monthly with the Training Director and all Psychology Staff to deal with program, pragmatic, personal adjustment and professional development issues.  A monthly Journal Club involves each staff member and trainee in selecting and presenting a scientific article for critical discussion.  In addition, weekly seminars are organized around specific topics: 

• Professional Issues
• Psychological Evaluation
• Multicultural Competency   
• Play Therapy   
• Family Therapy
• Process-Oriented Interventions
• Supervision  

Applied seminars rely heavily on video presentation and discussion of on-going intern and staff cases.  Other training opportunities include monthly all-staff training presentations and some limited support for participation in community workshops off-site.

Main Predoctoral Internship page
Intern Benefits and Prerequisites
Internship Staff and Recent Interns
Further Details About the Internship Program