Full Required Rotation
Supervisor: Albert B. Poje, Ph.D.

On this rotation, our interns are actively involved in patients’ care while gaining critical professional and clinical skills as important members of the inpatient psychiatry team at The University of Kansas Health System Strawberry Hill Campus. Interns will:

• Attend daily interdisciplinary psychiatry team staff meetings and provide detailed updates on patients’ status and relevant inpatient and outpatient treatment considerations
• Provide individual and group psychotherapy to patients
• Maintain an active patient caseload
• Follow patients on an outpatient basis after discharge from the inpatient psychiatry service
• Participate in psychology supervision meetings to help achieve team membership goals

This full rotation entails approximately 60% of the intern’s time during this quarter.

Skill development areas

• Gain understanding of various psychotherapeutic interventions and treatment plans and how to tailor them to a patients’ needs. Examples of interventions include:
  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Interpersonal psychotherapy
  • Problem-focused psychotherapy
  • Client-centered
  • Supportive
• Learn the potential effects of neuropsychological considerations and factors impacting a patient's behavioral, emotional and cognitive functioning
• Conduct psychological assessments and write reports on patients’ status and function as part of a multidisciplinary psychiatric team
• Work with patients of varying levels of functional difficulties

Full Required Rotation*

Supervisors: Tyler Droege, Psy.D., Danielle Johnson, Ph.D.

Our interns work with a multidisciplinary team while providing inpatient psychological testing and group psychotherapy. The rotation is based at The University of Kansas Health System Marillac Campus, which houses inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services.

Emphasis is placed on learning to effectively communicate and coordinate appropriate testing, findings and recommendations with the treatment team and patients’ families. Trainees also gain experience writing appropriate therapy notes, especially in acute hospitalizations situations that often last for only a short period of time.

This rotation accounts for approximately 60% of the intern's time during the quarter.

Skill development areas

• Competently administer psychological evaluations to children and adolescents in an inpatient setting
• Effectively provide psychotherapy to children and adolescents using group, individual and/or family strategies
• Work effectively with the inpatient multidisciplinary team

Additional child psychology experiences such as evaluating patients with potential developmental disorders may be available during the internship, including working with inpatients through behavioral pediatrics.

Required Activity

Supervisors: Varies by case

Interns on this rotation provide outpatient evaluation and treatment of adults with mental health needs. They dedicate approximately 6 hours per week to a caseload of 15 or more patients who they may see on a weekly, bi-weekly or occasional basis either in person or via telemedicine appointments.

Interns will also complete a small number of comprehensive psychological evaluations for disorders such as:

• ADHD
• Personality disorders
• Other psychiatric disorders and/or developmental disorders

Skill development areas

• Deliver effective, evidence-based interventions to mental health patients on an outpatient basis who have varying mental health diagnoses, including, at minimum:
  •  Mood disorders
  • Psychotic disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Personality disorders
• Competently perform comprehensive psychological evaluations with outpatients utilizing objective, cognitive and observer-focused instruments

Full Elective Rotation

Supervisors: Monica F. Kurylo, Ph.D., ABPP, Lindsey Jenkins, Ph.D.

On this rotation, our interns are trained to perform the basic and essential functions of a clinical psychologist on rehabilitation, burn, surgery, and other medical units in a hospital setting. They serve with the neurorehabilitation psychology group, which consists of the intern, neurorehabilitation psychologists, a neurorehabilitation postdoctoral fellow, and often also a clinical health psychology practicum student. The group offers a range of services:

• Evaluates, monitors and treats mood and behavior, and evaluates cognition to offer recommendations
• Administers cognitive, mood/behavioral , and trauma screens
• Offers feedback and education to patients, families and staff
• Provides psychological treatment
  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
  • Relaxation training
  • Supportive counseling

At the beginning of the rotation, interns observe other therapy sessions such as speech, physical and occupational therapies, as well as social work/case management. Throughout the training experience, our interns work closely with the neurorehabilitation psychology team, while learning critical skills and providing crucial services, including:

• Brief screening assessments of cognition mood, and behavior
• Brief and focused psychotherapeutic interventions
• Psychoeducation
• Occasional presentations to burn, stroke, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor groups
• Treating adolescents and adults with diverse diagnoses, typically including:
  • Traumatic and non-traumatic brain and spinal cord injury
  •  Stroke
  • Burn injury
  • Limb amputation
  • Orthopedic injuries
  • Neurological diagnoses such as multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome
  • Oncological diagnoses, including brain tumor and debility from treatments
  • Solid organ transplants
  • Other medical conditions requiring rehabilitation services

Interns on this rotation also provide consultation and services to burn, trauma/surgery and other medicine services at The University of Kansas Health System. The team is an embedded service within the 29-bed acute and short-term inpatient rehabilitation unit and a 15-bed burn unit with four ICU beds, allowing interns to gain necessary clinical experience interacting with a multidisciplinary team of experts, including:

• Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians (physiatrists), surgeons, and other specialty physicians
• Medical resident physicians in rehabilitation, psychiatry, and surgery as well as other specialties
• Rehabilitation, burn, and acute bedside nurses on medical/surgery floors
• Occupational and physical therapists
• Speech language pathologists
• Social work and nursing case managers
• A nutrition specialist/dietician
• A clinical pharmacist
• A recreational activities specialist
• Neurorehabilitation psychologists and postdoctoral fellow (Neurorehabilitation psychology services)

In addition, interns typically participate in regular interdisciplinary team meetings for the rehabilitation and burn units. The neurorehabilitation psychology group also is called to other units in the hospital for similar consultative services.

This rotation will take approximately 60-70% of the intern’s time during this quarter.

Skill development areas

• Independently conduct a neurorehabilitation psychology screening initial consult evaluation, including administration and scoring of standard cognitive and mood screening instruments. Write an evaluation report, including elements found in medical records and in clinical interview with the patient and family, and formulate a treatment plan.
• Independently conduct an evaluation of behavior, including administration and scoring of standard screening instruments of mood and behavior. Write an evaluation report including elements found in medical records and in clinical interview with the patient and family and formulate a treatment plan.
• Have an understanding of a wide range of medical diagnoses and be able to apply that understanding to properly and thoroughly evaluate and treat the psychosocial needs of
• patients, provide education to patients and families, and work on a treatment team with staff to help them understanding how best to work with and treat patients with mental health and cognitive and behavioral needs in a medical setting.
• Work within a medical team setting to evaluate, treat, provide education to patients, families, and staff, and cooperatively intervene in conjunction with other health disciplines using best practices of care. Provide brief verbal summaries of assessment findings on specific inpatient(s) to the inpatient treatment team during weekly staffing conference.
• Demonstrate an understanding of and attend to issues of cultural and individual diversity as it applies to patients, their families and staff, on the rotation.

Full Elective Rotation

Supervisors: Adam Everson, Ph.D., Heather Kruse, Ph.D., Megan Solberg, Ph.D.

The University of Kansas Cancer Center is a comprehensive multidisciplinary outpatient facility that offers psychological services (psycho-oncology) for the patient population it serves. This full rotation at the cancer center, which is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in the region, accounts for approximately 60% of the intern’s time. Here are some of the services our interns provide during their training experience:

• Individual, couples, or family therapy
• Pre-transplant evaluation for blood and marrow transplant
• Health and behavior consultation and intervention
• Interns also provide consultation to and work in collaboration with the interdisciplinary treatment teams at the KU Cancer Center. These teams often include following experts:
• Oncologists
• Palliative care providers
• Nursing staff including medical assistants, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants
• Social workers and case managers
• Dietitians
• Pharmacists
• Financial counselors
• Medical students and residents

Other training activities that may be part of this rotation are:

• Urgent needs consultation to cancer patients
• Suicide assessment and intervention
• Cognitive screenings
• Shadowing other supportive services
• There may be limited opportunities for inpatient consultation depending on the intern’s schedule

Supervision

To ensure the best possible training experience, the intern meets once a week with a psycho-

oncology faculty member at the KU Cancer Center for individual supervision. Additionally, the intern meets once a week with all clinical psycho-oncology staff and trainees for group supervision.

Skill development areas

• Gain an extensive knowledge of the variety of medical illness represented in the KU Cancer Center’s population
• Conduct competent psychological evaluations and psychotherapy with individuals with a variety of forms of cancer. Common psychotherapy approaches used at the Cancer Center include:
  • Brief, solutions-focused therapy
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy
  • Meaning-centered therapy
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Supportive therapy

Full Elective Rotation
Supervisors: Wendi Born, Ph.D., Kate Conover, Ph.D.

Interns in this rotation earn valuable clinical experience delivering services within a primary care setting for a wide variety of patients, including underserved individuals. Services may include:

• Individual group and family psychotherapy
• Psychological evaluation
• Participation and consultation on a multidisciplinary team involving an innovative approach to patient care

Emphasis is placed on traditional delivery of mental health services in this population and, more importantly, the coordination of services with multidisciplinary involvement.

• Medical Student Clinic
  • Every morning and Wednesday afternoons
  • Patients are treated using a multidisciplinary team approach
  • Behavioral health issues are a common reason for the psychologist to be involved
• Individual patients by appointment
  • More traditional mental health or behavioral health concerns
  • May include follow-ups from Medical Student Clinics visits
• Behavioral Health Group
  • Focus on patients diagnosed with an anxiety or mood disorder
• Cognitive
  • Behavioral focus

This rotation involves approximately 60% of an intern's time during the quarter. 

Skill development areas

• Work cooperatively as part of an interdisciplinary group during a primary care visit with caregivers from medicine, nursing and pharmacy
• Deliver brief behavioral interventions for common concerns such as sleep problems, smoking cessation, depression and anxiety in the context of an interdisciplinary primary care visit
• Effectively document brief visits in ways that enhance patient care in a primary care environment

Full Elective Rotation
Supervisor: Tara Pixley, Ph.D.

This rotation is embedded within a fast-paced primary care setting. It requires flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs of patients and primary care providers (PCPs). During the training experience, our interns provide a range of services while expanding their clinical expertise.

• Brief assessment to identify problem areas
• Collaborative selection of treatment targets
• Goal-focused intervention with clinic patients

In this setting, interns see a variety of integrated behavioral health referrals. Examples include:

• Management of chronic medical conditions
  • Diabetes
  • Chronic pain
  • COPD
  • Cardiac disease
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • IBS
• Mental health conditions
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Panic
  • PTSD
  • Alcohol or substance use/abuse
  • Adjustment
  • Grief
• Health risk behaviors/behavioral health conditions
  • Diet/weight management
  • Exercise/activity
  • Insomnia
  • Tobacco use
  • Medication adherence
  • Stress management
• Evaluation and intervention for suicide risk
• Inappropriate high utilization of medical services
• Communication issues
  • Patient/provider
  • Assertiveness

In total, the rotation will involve approximately 60% of the intern’s time during this quarter.

Skill development areas

• Conduct brief review of medical chart to identify reason for referral, diagnostic and treatment history, and other likely areas of intervention
• Build quick rapport with patients and provide brief informed consent in time-limited setting to reduce stigma for mental health and promote ease of access to services
• Work cooperatively as part of an interdisciplinary setting with PCPs, nursing staff, social worker, dietitian, and clinic staff
• Provide psychoeducation and deliver brief, evidence-based, mental and behavioral health interventions. Use motivational and solution-focused interviewing strategies to promote patient strengths and change for improved health
• Assess therapeutic response and side effects of psychotropic medications, understand appropriate limits and boundaries when discussing medication concerns
• Effectively document brief visits in ways that enhance patient care in a primary care environment
• Communicate results of evaluations to the primary medical provider
• Know when to appropriately provide referrals to outside resources

*All interns who have a primary care rotation will participate in either the Family Medicine Primary Care Clinic or the Internal Medicine Clinic or a combination of both.

Required Activity for Underserved Populations Track

Supervisor (Psychology): Jordan Gette, Ph.D. Additional Preceptor: Roopa Sethi, M.D.

The University of Kansas Addiction Treatment Center (ATC) is housed and operates out of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). The center is an integrated network of clinical and academic professionals specialized in treatment, research, and education of substance use. The ATC clinic provides services to persons with a history of substance use disorders or substance-related problems. The ATC offers a range of evidence-based interventions for substance use and co-occurring disorders including medication assisted treatments for opioid and alcohol use disorders, individual and group therapy and case management. Trainees will work with an interdisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, substance use counselors and case managers. Interns on this rotation will provide individual therapy to patients in the ATC, shadow medication assisted therapy appointments, and have the opportunity to co-lead group sessions. This is a 4 hours per week activity for 6 months.

Skill development areas

1. Work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team in an integrated substance abuse treatment center
2. Effectively apply evidence-based psychological interventions for substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders.
3. Understand the principles of medication assisted treatment for substance use disorders and other theories and approaches to treatment.

Interested interns may also participate in ongoing research through the ATC or with Dr. Gette. Interns can also receive training in topics related to substance use such as social disparities in care, harm reduction approaches, assessment of substance use, and training in the treatment of commonly co-occurring disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

Full Required Rotation

Supervisor: Doug Wright, Ph.D.

Ashley Clinic/Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). It includes locations in Iola, Chanute, Humbolt and Yates Center, Kansas. These are locations where the clinics provide integrated care including primary care, mental health care, and treatment for opioid use/substance used disorders (OUD/SUDs) including Medication-Assisted Psychotherapy (MAT) also referred to as Medications for Opioid Use Disorders (MOUD). The locations offer a broad range of services — from family medicine, pediatrics and lab/imaging, to clinical therapy, medication-assisted treatment and pharmacy services — providing integrated care within their community settings.

Interns spend three months on-site on this rotation in which they provide evaluation and brief behavioral health interventions, psychotherapy, and the behavioral side of the interventions of MAT under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. The intern works alongside of the counselors and social workers on the mental health side and APRN-NP and physicians as well as other types of medical providers. Intern may also provide some service via telehealth.

Interns are immersed within the culture of the communities. This is aided by the on-site experience. As the locations are approximately 2 hours from the main campus, interns are provided without charge an apartment atop the Iola clinic where they may stay during this three-month rotation. Interns typically go down on Mondays and return on Wednesday evening. Interns are compensated for mileage ($0.67/mile) for one trip down and back per week.

The rotation and related activities account for approximately 70% of their time.

Skill development areas:

1. Learn how to conduct brief behavioral interventions in community-based integrated care settings.
2. Learn how to conduct assessment and treatment services to patients in rural integrated care settings including training in MAT.
3. Learn how to conduct evaluation and psychotherapy in the context of working with other professions/disciplines caring for the patients.
4. Learn how rural and urban/suburban community practices and patient populations differ in terms of their setting, experiences, expectations and needs.
5. Learn how to work effective with rural populations in these settings to provide optimal care.