Education & Training | Psychology Pre-Doctoral | Training Sites | CT Mental Health Center | West Haven Mental Health Clinic

West Haven Mental Health Clinic

(Only available as a secondary placement)

Applicants who choose The Consultation Center, the Hispanic Clinic, the Division of Substance Abuse Adult Clinical Services, or the Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic as their primary placement may choose the West Haven Mental Health Clinic (WHMHC) as their secondary placement.

Applicants who choose the Young Adult Service (YAS) as their primary placement always have the WHMHC as their secondary placement.

Each year, there are four to six predoctoral psychology interns with a 12-month secondary placement at the clinic. WHMHC is a satellite clinic of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) that provides community-based psychiatric services to children, adolescents, and adults living in the City of West Haven. Previous experience working with children is not required for acceptance, and all interns are encouraged to use the placement to address gaps in their clinical experience.

About the Internship Setting

  • WHMHC serves an ethnically diverse, economically poor population of clients with a broad range of presenting problems. The presence of child and adult treatment teams within the same clinic offers unique opportunities for coordination of services both across the life span and across generations.
  • In this community-oriented setting, the WHMHC offers a full complement of outpatient services to children, adolescents, and adults with acute and chronic psychiatric difficulty. Almost all clients are involved with other service-delivery systems. Many of the adults are involved in other programs funded by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and many of the children and adolescents are involved with the special education system, child protective services, or the juvenile court system.
  • Although the validity of all theoretical perspectives is acknowledged, the setting emphasizes the integration of developmental perspectives on psychopathology, family systems theory, and a community perspective on service delivery.
  • Services available at the clinic include intake-triage, crisis intervention, individual psychotherapy, group therapy, family therapy, marital therapy, case management, psychological assessment, and pharmacotherapy. The clinic also has a Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) program and a dual-diagnosis program for clients with concurrent psychiatric and substance use problems.
  • The clinic’s adult component has formal links with clinical and rehabilitation programs that target individuals with chronic mental illness, and the child component has formal links with several school-based programs and an interagency collaborative that coordinates community-based services being provided to children living in stressed, fragile family systems.
  • WHMHC and the YAS are located in the same building.

Internship Overview

  • Clinical assignments are varied to provide the broadest experience possible while also allowing for pursuit of personal interests in particular populations.
  • Interns with primary placements at The Consultation Center, the Hispanic Clinic, or the Division of Substance Abuse Adult Clinical Services, or the Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic are required to maintain a balance in clinical work being done with adults versus children and adolescents.
  • Interns with primary placement at the YAS only work with children and adolescents to create an internship experience that focuses on the delivery of psychiatric services to children, adolescents, and young adults.
  • All interns participate in an applied seminar on psychiatric assessment and intervention with children, adolescents, and young adults.

Supervision and Evaluation

  • Clinical supervision is provided by faculty who have experience working with children, adolescents, adults, groups, and families.
  • 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.

Special Note

Funding and licensing requirements for the child component of the WHMHC mandate that anyone who works with children must have a physical examination and successfully complete criminal background and child protective services checks. Guidelines outlined by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families prohibit the university from allowing people who have been convicted of certain types of felony charges from working in a licensed psychiatric clinic for children.

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