Our internship program is designed to provide a solid foundation on the assessment and treatment of severe acute and chronic mental illness across the adult lifespan (18 to 65+).  Given the complexity of cases who are admitted to a state facility in the New York, interns are expected to have working knowledge of diagnostic categories, experience with adult psychological testing and experience providing group and individual therapy to adults.  We have found that interns who possess the minimum qualification listed below thrive in our training environment.  This program is not suited for trainees with no adult or assessment experience.

SALARY - $37,965 

BENEFITS - As New York State employees, interns receive a full benefit package, which includes paid holidays, vacation, sick leave, and personal leave, affordable Health Insurance, Dental and Vision Care, Flex Spending Account, Retirement benefits, and EAP services. 

TRAINING YEAR   - 12 months | Start Date September 5, 2024|

REQUIRED INTERNSHIP TRAINING HOURS - NYS licensure requires a minimum of1,750 hours - excluding holiday, personal, vacation, and sick leave.Please check with your program and other state licensure requirements.  Most interns aim to complete 2,000 hours.

DAILY WORK SCHEDULE   - 8.5 hours, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch;  40 hours per week, Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:30 pm, with the possibility of one late day (9:30am-6:00pm).

PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY AND TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Our internship program is based on the Practitioner-Scholar model which emphasizes the application of relevant assessment measures and empirically supported clinical interventions for individuals with serious mental illness. Our primary goal is to prepare interns to become competent and confident entry-level psychologists after spending a year working the some of the most challenging psychiatric cases in Western New York.   The program is designed to achieve this goal by emphasizing cultural humility, skills in assessment and intervention, and a focus on development of identity as a clinical psychologist.

Objective One: Competence in Psychological Assessment

By the end of the training year, interns will demonstrate proficiency in the selection, administration, and interpretation of core assessment tools utilized to provide cognitive, personality, projective, and neuropsychological testing, differential diagnosis, and in writing clear, concise and clinically useful reports.

Objective Two: Competence in Evidence-based Intervention

By the end of the training year, interns will demonstrate competence in providing evidence-based treatment to seriously mentally ill adults through individual and group psychotherapy modalities.

Objective Three: Competence in Working with a Diverse Patient Population 

By the end of the training year, interns will demonstrate advanced proficiency in effectively and sensitively applying professional skills in their work with a diverse patient population. Cultural humility, with its tenets of life-long learning, patient-focus, and community-based partnerships form the foundation for training and practice at BPC.

Objective Four: Professional Identity

By the end of the training year, interns will demonstrate growth in their professional identity as entry-level, health-service psychologists by improved professional self-awareness, the ability to function as members of a multi-disciplinary treatment team, and by integrating values, ethics, and standards for professional practice in their communication.

TRAINING PROGRAM COMPONENTS

1. ASSESSMENT

All interns are assigned to the inpatient admissions unit where they conduct admission psychological screenings of newly admitted patients and  complete a minimum of six (6) integrative assessment batteries over the course of the year.

2. INTERVENTION

Interns will gain experience using a variety of clinical interventions including individual, group, milieu, and crisis interventions. Their training experience is enriched by working in both the admission unit and a unit of their choice. Between both units, they provide four groups (4) per week and carry an individual therapy caseload of 8-10 cases.  

3. SUPERVISION

Interns receive a minimum of 4.0 scheduled hours of supervision per week, including 2.0 hours of individual face-to-face supervision and 2.0 hours of group supervision, with access to their supervisors throughout the day.  

4.  DIDACTIC ACTIVITIES - Psychology Seminars, Grand Rounds, Annual Psychiatry COfnerence, and Case Conferences 

5. CLINICAL CAPSTONE - at the end of the training year, interns do a Power Point presentation to the Psychology Department of a case that demonstrates their mastery of assessment and intervention skills