Devereux Whitlock
Pre-doctoral Internship Program |
The Devereux Whitlock Center serves young adults through geriatric age with:
- Mental Retardation (i.e., mild, moderate, severe, profound, and borderline intellectual functioning)
- Developmental Disabilities (e.g. Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder)
- Dual Diagnoses (mental retardation with mental illness)
- Mental Illness only
The Whitlock Center provides services in residential, community-based, and vocational settings. Within the mental retardation population, there are approximately 300 adults served at the Devereux Whitlock Center. |
| Typical Week |
A Typical Week for the Whitlock Intern varies depending on the intern's needs and wants. The intern works with his or her supervisors to obtain the experience he or she wants. Accordingly, the following opportunities are available for the intern to choose from:
- Individual Therapy (approximately 4-6 hours per week)
- Group Therapy (e.g., social skills, community meeting)
- Applied Behavior Analysis (i.e., conducting functional behavior assessments, developing behavior support plan, training staff, and monitoring data)
- Outcome Study (e.g., Individuals with Disabilities as Peer Mentors Providing Active Engagement in a Residential Setting; Cultural Differences in Quality of Life for Persons with Intellectual Disability at the Devereux Whitlock Center Residential and Community Facilities).
- Psychological Evaluations
- Attends weekly team, clinical team, medication review meetings
- Program implementation (e.g., Active Engagement Model, Reid & Parsons, 1990; Peer Mentoring).
- Currently underway is a peer-mentoring program where some individuals are trained in New Directions and serve as mentors to help train other individuals in prevocational work.
- Responsible for the clinical aspect of annual reports due on his or her assigned individuals and developing any behavioral support plans or plans of support that may be needed.
- Serves as a consultant to train direct care staff on the implementation of the plan.
- Involved on committees (e.g., safety, quality management, sexuality, dementia, and developing healthy lifestyle committees).
- Providing training for all new Whitlock Staff (e.g., Introduction to those We Serve, Positive Approaches, New Directions modules).
- Providing supervision to the pre-professional trainee.
- Receives 2 to 3 hours individual supervision weekly, in addition to group supervision at weekly clinical meetings.
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| Supervision |
The intern receives four hours of individual supervision per week from three supervisors in the following areas:
- Therapy and assessment (Eleanor Bogos, Psy.D., primary)
- Behavioral support plans ( Sandy Powell, M.A., secondary)
- Research (Stewart Shear, Ph.D., secondary)
At the beginning of the internship year, the intern and primary supervisor discuss the goals of the intern as it pertains to obtaining clinical skills, which assists in case assignment. Because Whitlock serves such a large and diverse population, the internship experience can be tailored to meet the interests and needs of the intern. |
| Caseload |
| The caseload varies from 4 to 6 clients throughout the year. The Whitlock Intern is involved through an informal basis or data collection with many clients on the campus. Additionally, the intern is responsible for maintaining contact with the individual and providing input during team meetings. |
| Assessments |
| The intern will be required to attain a certain competency level for the assessments. Striving to reach this competency level will determine the amount of assessments each intern will do. |
| Group Therapy |
The Whitlock Center Intern facilitates one or two groups either alone or with a co-facilitator. Some groups led in the past include social skills training and anger management group.
There is no family therapy conducted at the Whitlock Center. If an intern has contact with a family member, it is usually through informal means. |
| Research Project |
| The intern at the Whitlock Center is required to conduct a research project that is useful for the Whitlock Center. At the beginning of internship year, the intern and research supervisor discuss an appropriate study to conduct. This will involve the intern researching articles, collecting data, conducting statistical analysis, interpreting the data, writing up and presenting the research project. The intern will present the research project to the Chief Clinical Officer and the other interns, as well as making a presentation to the Whitlock Clinical team. |
| Consultation |
There are opportunities for the intern to serve as a consultant, which include:
- Acting as a consultant to direct care staff on an individual's case, or
- Providing consultation to staff participating in one of the ongoing model programs
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| Additional Pre-doctoral Internship Programs at Devereux |
| For more information on how to apply for Devereux's Pre-Doctoral internship program please e-mail us via this link. |
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