Behavioral Medicine Track (APPIC # 118323)
Two predoctoral interns will be selected into the Behavioral Medicine training track.
This track consists of an 8-month primary placement in Behavioral Medicine, and a 4-month secondary placement in Clinical Neuropsychology.
Behavioral Medicine Placement
The Behavioral Medicine service is a psychological consultation and intervention program integrated within specialized medical services of Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Smilow Cancer Hospital. Interns work within multidisciplinary teams of medical providers (consisting of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and social workers) and gain valuable experience in the provision of behavioral health consultation, psychological assessment, and behavioral health intervention to a broad range of medically ill patients. Emphasis is placed on understanding the psychosocial factors influencing adjustment and adaptation to chronic medical conditions, and on developing skills for behavioral consultation and intervention in an academic medical setting.
About the Behavioral Medicine service
The Behavioral Medicine service is a part of the Psychiatric Services of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Developed in 2008, the Behavioral Medicine service has become a valued and active component of the Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center, Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital, and the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. The goal of the Behavioral Medicine service in each of these settings is to provide support and assistance to medical care providers and their patients so that the patient’s emotional and mental health needs can be addressed within the context of their overall medical care. The service operates under the premise that integrated behavioral medicine has the potential to benefit both patient and physician by improving access to behavioral health care for medically compromised individuals, improving adherence to medical treatments, targeting lifestyle and psychosocial issues effecting wellness, addressing issues of pain management, stress tolerance, coping, and by helping to prevent the development of more serious mental health disorders through early recognition and intervention.
Within each of the medical specialties, Behavioral Medicine interns:
- provide individual psychotherapy to medically ill patients using a combination of supportive, cognitive-behavioral, and mindfulness-based therapeutic approaches
- perform routine diagnostic clinical assessments
- attend weekly multidisciplinary meetings and case conferences such as the:
- Liver Transplant Recipient Review Committee
- Melanoma Tumor Board
- Palliative Care Interdisciplinary Team
Interns receive specialized training in:
- evaluation of potential living donors within the liver transplant service
- behavioral weight loss to potential liver transplant recipients
- drug and alcohol relapse prevention counseling to pre and post liver transplant patients
- smoking cessation to oncology patients
- pre-and post-surgical counseling to adult epilepsy neurosurgery patients
- therapy with non-epileptic seizure (NES) disorder patients
- participation in a monthly Menopause, Intimacy and Sexuality clinic within gynecology-oncology
Elective Clinical Research
Interns are supported in their efforts to generate independent research projects during their placement in Behavioral Medicine, or they may participate in several ongoing clinical research projects.
Didactics
In addition to core didactic seminars within the Department of Psychiatry, Behavioral Medicine interns have the opportunity to attend an elective Clinical Health Psychology training seminar sponsored by the Connecticut VA Health System.
Clinical Neuropsychology Placement
The Clinical Neuropsychology placement is a 4 month rotation that provides introductory training in the theory and practice of neuropsychological assessment with a special emphasis in Epilepsy.
Clinical neuropsychology training includes:
- Conducting detailed assessments of cognitive abilities and emotional functioning
- Participation in multidisciplinary case conferences within Yale Epilepsy Program
- Treatment of cognitive disorders associated with epilepsy
- Opportunity to observe intracarotid sodium amytal testing (Wada test) and extraoperative cortical stimulation mapping
- Didactic experiences include a broad range of case conferences, seminars, rounds, and courses offered through the Yale Neuroscience Program. Participation in most didactics are at the discretion of the intern as their schedule permits.
For more information about this placement site, please e-mail dwain.fehon@yale.edu
