User:
Site Name: Mendota Mental Health Institute
Department: Department of Psychology and Research
Interview dates range from the middle of December through the middle of January, with at least over 5 inteview days. In accordance with APPIC recommendations, interviews will be conducted via Zoom. Interviews with various psychologists from the Psychology Department's training committee will be conducted virtually. There will be an orientation with the training director, a meeting with our current interns, a separate interview with our training director, and a brief writing sample. Our assistant will contact interviewees who are selected to be interviewed.
Mendota Mental Health Institute's primary educational model is a professional model built on a Practitioner-Scholar orientation, in which research and theory inform practice. The majority of interns who come to MMHI aspire to professional careers as practicing psychologists in applied settings, particularly in forensic psychology, although, many have obtained positions in research, academia and private/corporate settings. As a psychiatric hospital, MMHI's mission is to treat individuals experiencing mental illness and disorders. These services are based on the science of psychology, with a firm foundation in accepted and validated processes and procedures. Training goals and objectives of the program are to develop skills in assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, and psychotherapy/intervention for a diverse population (adult males and females, forensic adult males and females, and juvenile males). Three inpatient rotations are assigned an intern for the training year. including a rotation in risk assessments. There is certainly some flexibility for individual preferences and circumstances. A psychologist supervisor is assigned to each rotation unit with the intern. Close supervision is given particularly to assessment and therapy work during the training period. Each rotation is 4 months long and is deemed autonomous from the other rotations. Some overlap between rotations is allowed up to 2 hours per week. An intern is also assigned to one outpatient or rotation during the year for one day (8 hrs) per week for training and exposure to psychological services with a diversity of clients from the general community (PACT program) or an 8 hr per week, year-long, supplemental rotation in substance use evaluation/treatment, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, long-term therapy, or the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center. Research opportunities/program evaluations are also available, as well as supervisory experiences for the intern (supervising practicum students and undergraduate students).There is strong support for training at MMHI, as training is an important part of our mission. The internship is highly regarded for bringing quality trainees to the units. Other staff, members of the units' multidisciplinary teams, routinely interact with the interns and assist in providing training experiences. The internship program is one calendar year (50 weels), 40 hours per week.
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Mendota Mental Health Institute is fortunate to have a significant knowledge base from psychologists with a broad range of training foci. Training and supervised opportunities are therefore not necessarily limited to those items checked above.
Additional information about training opportunities: Not all rotations or training experiences may be available as described in the APPIC Directory. Please consult the program's application materials or their website at: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02181.pdf for a complete description of the training opportunities available at this training site. IF the site has not updated their information by August 1, feel free to contact the Training Director for additional information.
