Education & Training | Psychology Pre-Doctoral | Training Sites | CT Mental Health Center | Acute Inpatient Unit

Acute Inpatient Unit (APPIC #118324)

One predoctoral psychology intern is selected for a 12-month placement on the Acute Inpatient Unit, a 26-bed adult (age 18+) service of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) that serves as an integral part of CMHC's crisis, ambulatory, and community-based care system. This placement offers skills development in assessment, intervention, consultation, and clinical research.

About the Internship Setting

  • The Acute Inpatient Unit, utilizing a multidisciplinary team approach, provides comprehensive assessment, crisis intervention, symptom stabilization, and discharge planning to uninsured or under-insured residents of the local community.
  • As daily operating needs and bed availability permits, two of the unit’s 26 beds may be used to provide medically managed detoxification from alcohol and/or opiates for patients enrolled in outpatient treatment.
  • The unit's mean length of stay currently is six days. However, each patient's length of stay is determined by their specific care requirements and, as a result, may vary from one day to several months.
  • Overall, the treatment philosophy of the unit is eclectic, reflecting the diversity of disciplines engaged in the treatment process, the breadth of clinical conditions and specific problems encountered, and the rich broader theoretical and research context of CMHC and the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
  • Upon admission, each patient is assigned to a primary therapist and a team comprised of an attending psychiatrist, RN care coordinator, licensed clinical social worker, rehabilitation or occupational therapist, resident physicians, a social services discharge planning specialist, and trainees of various disciplines. In addition, clinicians from the nursing staff, including RNs and paraprofessional mental health assistants, are assigned to each patient and attend the daily team rounds on a rotational basis. A substance abuse rehabilitation counselor provides consultation and attends rounds on an as needed basis.
  • Within the context of team discussion, individualized outcome-oriented plans of care are developed, typically in direct collaboration with the patient and his/her outpatient care providers. The involvement of the patient's family and/or significant others is sought (in accordance with the patient's needs and wishes) to ensure that a comprehensive and workable plan is established.
  • Treatment planning based on a comprehensive admission evaluation begins with the generation of a problem list. Patient-specific treatments are defined and evaluated on an ongoing basis to guide the patient's care throughout the hospitalization. Individual, group, family, occupational, recreational, milieu and pharmacological therapies are employed in accord with the specific needs of individual patients.
  • The patient’s medical, housing, financial, social, and vocational needs are assessed, and comprehensive dispositional planning is undertaken to ensure that the patient is returned to the community in a safe and expeditious fashion.
  • Pastoral counseling also is available to patients by request.

Internship Overview

  • As a valued member of a treatment team, the intern will:
  • Acquire skills in differential psychopathological diagnosis;
  • Conduct comprehensive admissions assessments;
  • Refine their case formulation skills;
  • Develop the capacity to present case formulations and treatment plans to a multidisciplinary team;
  • Clinically manage patients within a team context;
  • Refine their individual and group therapy skills;
  • Refine their medical record keeping, treatment plan writing, disposition planning and discharge summary preparation skills;
  • Further develop their skills in psychological assessment; and
  • Refine their sensitivity to cultural and diversity issues.
  • The intern will clinically manage, or observe, clinical problems reflecting the full panoply of DSM disorders. Responsibility for coordinating and enacting the patient's overall plan of care rests with the primary therapist (who may be a resident in psychiatry, or the predoctoral psychology intern). The primary therapist role within a multidisciplinary team structure ensures that the intern obtains a diverse treatment experience, and exposure to a wide range of clinical conditions.
  • The intern will carry direct care responsibilities within the unit, including admissions assessment, presentation of the case formulation to the treatment team, treatment planning, direct care/therapy, group therapy, family meetings, and the writing of progress notes, discharge plans, and discharge summaries.
  • The intern will have the opportunity to conduct psychological assessments, participate in psychoeducational programming, and assist in the formulation of behavioral management programs for patients on the unit.
  • The Yale internship program offers regular weekly seminars, and a wide range of departmental elective seminars open to both psychology interns and psychiatry residents.

Supervision and Evaluation

  • Supervision is provided both on the unit and with affiliated Yale faculty. Interns receive ongoing feedback during the internship from their advisor and supervisors.
  • Quarterly formal evaluations are completed that serve as opportunities to review progress on training goals and address progress toward core competency areas.

For More Information

  • If you have a specific question regarding the Acute Inpatient training option, please contact Dr. Keith Hawkins by telephone at (203) 974-7831, or preferably by email at keith.hawkins@yale.edu.
  • To learn about the research interests of Dr. Hawkins, go to his faculty profile, or check Pubmed, Medline, or Psychinfo.