Mission Statement
Equip the psychologists of tomorrow by providing ethical, comprehensive, integrated and innovative training in the field of health psychology and neuropsychology.
Training Philosophy
Samaritan Health Services is dedicated to educating and training upcoming practitioners in psychology. As the national healthcare model adapts, it is appropriate and important for psychologists to be skilled in collaborating with other healthcare professionals in order to best serve the public. Such proficiency requires being well-informed about the interplay between physical and psychological health. Similarly, as psychologists merge into medical primary care clinics, generalist training is key in effectively providing primary psychological care. Thus, the Samaritan internship program espouses a generalist training model; this includes traditional mental health services, health psychology, and assessment as the most salient areas of training for primary care.
Effective psychologists must also have skill in reviewing literature and research as well as clinical skills. To achieve this goal, our training program adheres to a practitioner/scholar model. Interns will learn how to responsibly consume evidence-based research as well as how to consult with patients and physicians.
The Samaritan Health Services psychology doctoral internship program contains two positions in the Medical/Health Psychology track. The track consists of three different rotations and each rotation consists of a “Major” area of emphasis (24-32 hours per week) and “Minor” area of emphasis (8 hours per week; optional). The other 8 hours of the training week are divided amongst didactics, research activity, class socialization, and administration activities. Interns work with the training committee to develop their training plan for the year at the outset of internship.
The Medical/Health Psychology track (#236112) requires at least two of the three major rotations during the training year consist of experiences emphasizing integration of mental and behavioral health services within primary care. These are primary care placements, with the intern operating as a part of an integrated care team. While the overall goal of this track is to provide experience within a Behavioral Health Consultant model of care, there is some variation in implementation that is based on supervisor style/practice, population being served, and specific clinic needs and set up. Typically, a caseload will include each of: patients with a primary mental health diagnosis, patients with a primary medical diagnosis or condition, and a high level of comorbidity of both mental and behavioral health conditions.
Our site affords a wide variety of training experiences and intern preference for rotations is taken into consideration when designing a training plan that meets training needs of developing skills for entry level psychologists.