The UMDNJ-Piscataway Psychology Internship program provides a core advanced training experience in four areas of specialization. These are Child/Adolescent Mental Health services, Adolescent Mental Health Services (Forensic specialty). Adult Mental Health Services (Clinica Latina specialty) and Adult Mental Health Services (Schizophrenia Research specialty). Interns also receive supplemental training and experience in other areas of interest via the inclusion of minor rotations.

Child/ Adolescent Mental Health Services Track (2 positions)

One CAMHS Track position is within the Child Therapeutic Day School. This program serves students who have been classified as emotionally disturbed by their school districts and have been judged to require longer-term (at least a year) of therapeutically-based out-of-district placement. This position includes assessment, individual and family therapy, group therapy, milieu therapy and case consultation.

The second CAMHS Track position is at the South Brunswick School Based Youth Services Program. This program is a collaboration between UBHC and the South Brunswick School District. South Brunswick is a large, suburban, multicultural district in Central Jersey. Services provided to traditionally underserved children and families include: evaluation; individual, family and group therapy; consultation with on-site psychiatrists; psycho-educational activities and support groups; program development and evaluation; consultation with school staff and community entities around client care issues; participation in school and community advocacy groups
 
Child/Adolescent Mental Health –Forensic Specialty Track (1 position)

This position is located within a residential juvenile justice setting, approximately 15 miles from the main campus, in affiliation with University Correctional HealthCare (UCHC) and the Juvenile Justice Commission. In this position, the intern will provide assessment, individual and group therapy, as well as consultation to an adolescent forensic population.

Adult Mental Health Services - Clinica Latina specialty track (1 position)
 
This position is located at the community based New Brunswick outpatient office. Set in a culturally diverse small city, with a burgeoning Latino immigrant population, the New Brunswick Outpatient Team provides treatment services to individuals who often present with multiple mental health and systemic problems, e.g. major mental illness, substance abuse, poverty, immigration issues, etc. The primary focus of this rotation will be provision of assessment, individual, family and group therapy to a largely immigrant and Spanish-speaking population, as well as consultation. This office serves a full diagnostic spectrum and age range of clientele. There is the opportunity to work as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Adult Mental Health Services - Division of Schizophrenia Research track (1 position)

Interns will gain experience providing group-based skills training (e.g., social skills),
cognitive remediation and assessment of individuals with major mental illness. There are also opportunities for individual short- and long-term psychotherapy (CBT or supportive therapy) of clients with psychotic disorders. Interns will gain expertise in these evidence-based practices, and will also participate in program development activities for outpatient and partial hospital populations. A number of the above activities are part of ongoing funded research studies.

Minor Tracks:

Employee Assistance Program

The Employee Assistance Program gives interns the opportunity to provide short-term treatment, consultation and referral to adults and families seeking service. This program has contracts to provide brief intervention services to the employees of a variety of large corporations throughout the State of New Jersey.

University Correctional HealthCare (UCHC)

University Correctional HealthCare is UBHC’s affiliate, developed to provide mental health services to inmates in New Jersey prisons. This service offers a broad range of mental health services for inmates incarcerated within the 14 Department of Corrections facilities. Interns may elect to spend a half-day to one day per week seeing incarcerated adult patients. They can also help conduct psychological evaluations for inmate classification, provide crisis intervention and participate on a treatment team.

Juvenile Sex Offender Program

Interns can work with adolescent boys adjudicated by the court for sexual offending behavior. Treatment includes group, individual and family therapy as well as the potential to conduct psychosexual evaluations. The intern will also consult with the Department of Probation on a routine basis.

New Brunswick/Edison Outpatient Offices

Interns can work in one of these two outpatient settings serving public sector clients, with a full range of psychological problems and of a full age spectrum. Services include assessment, individual, family and group therapy. Interns would work within an interdisciplinary team.

Acute Psychiatric Services

Interns can work within a multidisciplinary team, providing both on and off-site emergency assessment to adults who present in crisis. Services include assessment, case disposition and referral to higher levels of care

Comprehensive Outpatient Psychiatric Services on Aging (COPSA)

Interns can work with geriatric patients providing neuropsychological assessment through the dementia diagnostic program as well as conduct milieu therapy within the Dementia Day program.

Office of Prevention Services

Interns can work providing consultation, training and research based services to clientele who work directly with the community. The clientele include schools, community groups, government agencies, health practitioners, juvenile justice facilities and businesses. Services provided by the interns include consultation and training within one of the current contracted projects.

Through our affiliation with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, interns can also participate in ongoing NIMH-funded studies assessing the efficacy of various interventions with different medically based populations. These studies are being run by licensed psychologists on the faculty of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Specific training opportunities offered include:

• Working with Paul Lehrer PhD on an NIH funded research project on biofeedback therapy for patients with asthma.

Interns spend approximately three days per week in their primary track site, which will be their area of specialization. Additionally they select an additional minor track in which to receive clinical experience and training, totaling 5-8 hours per week. Whereas interest, experience and career focus, as presented in the application, determine the intern’s primary track, minor tracks are selected in consultation with the Internship Director to allow for experiences which may represent a more focused or divergent interest. The rotations are chosen carefully with the Internship Director to optimize the intern’s ability to develop the required competencies for completion of the internship.