The purpose of the Northeast Tennessee Psychology Internship Consortium (NETPIC) is to enhance service delivery for underserved persons in the context of rural community mental health centers (CMHCs) and small urban public school systems by equipping and preparing psychology doctoral students for rewarding and competent work with these groups. NETPIC emphasizes several key areas of professional development, including: well-rounded generalist clinical skills that CMHC and public school practitioners must possess given the breadth of client concerns they will treat; cultural competence with respect to the client characteristics often encountered in rural CMHC and small urban settings; appropriate use of community resources to enhance therapeutic gains; collaboration with multidisciplinary professionals and community agencies; and psychological assessment. NETPIC recognizes the uniquely valuable contribution that psychological assessment provides rural and small urban communities and is devoted to the development of interns’ assessment skills.

NETPIC provides interns with the training experience of learning school psychologist services, behavioral assessment and intervention services, school-based mental health services, comprehensive evaluations, and school-based programs at the Bristol Tennessee City Schools training site as well the training experience of clinic-based community mental health treatment services at Frontier Health’s Holston Children and Youth Services clinic and Frontier Health’s Forensic and Assessment Services clinic co-located in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Bristol Tennessee City Schools Training Site (BTCS): During the school year, interns will spend 2.5 days a week at BTCS learning and engaging in the duties and responsibilities of a school psychologist by administering, scoring and writing psychological reports for identified students, conducting functional behavior assessments, and participating in administrative and staffing requirements. Interns will complete 2-6 assessments per week and have a 45-day turn around for psychological reports. Interns can expect to have 6-8 hours of face-to-face direct service delivery with clients per week. At BTCS, the interns will receive training on and then conduct: educational evaluations, academic and behavioral consultation, psychological evaluations, functional behavior assessments, and behavioral evaluations. The interns will use primarily online administration and scoring platforms such as q[1]interactive, q-global and other e-platforms.

Frontier Health – Holston Children and Youth Clinic (FH-HCY) Site: During the school year, interns will spend 1.5 days a week at FH-HCY, and under the supervision of clinical psychologist, Dr. Lori J. Klinger. Interns will provide outpatient therapy services for children and adolescents, ages 6 to 19. Services at FH-HCY include intake evaluations and treatment of child and adolescent behavioral health, mental health, substance abuse and co-occurring disorders using evidenced-based interventions. Interns will provide individual and group psychotherapy, family therapy, or parenting classes and be actively involved in an interdisciplinary approach to mental health care to include consultations with psychiatric services, crisis services, case management, education services, Children and Youth Continuous Treatment Teams, and Comprehensive Child & Family Therapy services. Interns will be able to administer a variety of measures to assess for depression, anxiety, behavioral concerns, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity.  Additionally, interns will have the opportunity to work with therapists trained in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Interns will carry a caseload of approximately 20-25 clients and can expect to have 7-8 face-to-face direct service delivery hours with clients per week.

After the end of the school year at BTCS, interns will spend an additional 2 days at FH-HCY on Wednesdays and Fridays providing outpatient group therapy for children and adolescents in need of enhancing skill development with peers, such as social skills and coping skills.

Frontier Health – Assessment and Forensic Services Clinic Site: During the school year, interns will spend a half day at FH-AFS on Mondays mornings under the supervision of Dr. Lori J. Klinger administering psychological evaluations for male and female adolescents at FH group homes or participating in forensic assessments. The interns will be trained on and conduct psychological evaluations on adolescents, completing a clinical interview and administering intelligence and academic tests as well as personality and substance use measures. Interns will also receive training on and participate in clinical interviews for forensic evaluations, administering intelligence screeners as needed, and writing forensic reports. Interns can expect to have 2 face[1]to-face direct service delivery hours with clients per week. After the end of the school year at BTCS, interns will also spend Tuesday mornings at FH-AFS.

Training Week

Monday: FH-AFS (.5 day in morning) + FH-HCY (.5 day in afternoon) = 1 day

Tuesday: BTCS (.5 day in morning) + Didactics and Group Supervision (.5 day in afternoon) = 1 day

Wednesday: BTCS (entire day) = 1 day

Thursday: FH-HCY (entire day) = 1 day

Friday: BTCS (entire day) = 1 day