MPC’s mission is to serve as a “Bridge to Recovery” by assisting persons experiencing severe and persistent mental illness in increasing their capacity for self-mastery, self-care and social integration, so that they can function successfully at their greatest potential.  We view the hospital as a place for recovery from illness, a step in a journey back to health. The goal is to work collaboratively with our consumers and across disciplines toward the individual’s recovery goals so that they might return to their families, friends, and community as soon as possible.

MPC strives to meet the needs of the underserved and often overlooked residents of New York City.  Our consumers frequently are impoverished, hard-to-reach and often experiencing chronic adversity, including severe and often persistent mental illness.  They frequently experience multiple disadvantages in the form of social and educational deprivation, physical disabilities, intellectual / cognitive impairment, trauma history, substance misuse, and legal system involvement, in addition to the specific psychiatric crises that precipitate hospitalization.  Although some hospitalizations are brief, longer-term hospitalizations often occur, as do recurrent hospitalizations. While we are not a forensic facility, a considerable number of our patients have experience serving time in either City jails, State prisons or both.

The MPC Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and as such abides by its guidelines. We also strive to be consistent with the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association (APA), 2017), and the Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology (APA, 2017). The aim of the MPC Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology is to train ethical and culturally responsive psychologists who are competent and skilled in delivering clinical services to a wide-range of populations, including those with the most severe mental illness and limited resources. The Internship is integral to the function and philosophy of OMH and MPC in its provision of a wide range of evidence-based, trauma-informed treatment and evaluation services to traditionally underserved populations, its commitment to recovery from illness, and its focus on ongoing education and professional development for employees toward the services they provide.

At MPC, a team of well-qualified and passionate psychologists are committed to preparing the next generation of psychologists to pursue fulfilling careers in health care psychology.  Their passion for sharing their skills and knowledge results in a multitude of opportunities for students to observe, learn, and practice their own growing skill set. The supervisors/practitioners provide in vivo and didactic supervision and training through scheduled seminars and supervisions as well as with an “open door” policy that allows for immediate responsiveness to interns’ queries and needs. 

The Psychology Internship program integrates intern psychology professional development into the hospital service setting. Over the course of the intern year, through gradually increasing responsibilities, interns learn the important skills, including assessment, treatment interventions, and consultations, beneficial to recovery for patients with severe persistent mental illness (SPMI).   

While our Interns have much to gain from their experiences at MPC, they also have quite a bit to offer.  They come from APA-accredited programs at renowned schools where they have been seeped in the most current research and trained in a variety of empirically-based interventions.  In addition to their academic and clinical skills, our interns are impressive because they have decided to work in public mental health.  They have expressed interest in obtaining training and in working with individuals with serious mental illness in a public setting.  Our Interns’ work in our programs enables the furtherance of the mission of OMH, by developing clinicians prepared to provide high quality, culturally sensitive, effective treatment and assessment across the continuum of care.