UIC, Dept. of Psychiatry

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Internship in Clinical Child Psychology
Research

The scientist-practitioner model at IJR integrates research and practice by involving interns in leadership roles on ongoing clinical research projects, supervising interns on the management of cases from the outpatient clinic, and through seminars on clinical methods and research topics. A description of recent examples of clinical research projects on which psychology interns have participated is available in the Appendix.

To ensure that the integration of clinical research and practice is comprehensive and intensive, these experiences involve a substantial part of clinical training at IJR. This is operationalized as participation in at least two clinical research projects lasting from six months to one year. Interns allocate approximately 20% time to each of these projects. Clinical research projects involve either (1) assessment or intervention with children or families with diagnosed psychopathologic disorders or (2) assessment or intervention to reduce the risk of disorder in vulnerable populations. Because IJR's clinics serve predominantly low income, African-American and Latino, inner-city communities, these clinical trials provide important information regarding the validity of psychosocial treatments for this population of under-served and under-researched children and families.

Interns have the opportunity to make significant contributions to research projects, often earning publication status, while also receiving intensive instruction in the development and implementation of clinical methods and procedures. Involvement in faculty-directed research avoids frustrations often experienced by interns who attempt to initiate research projects during their internship year. For example, interns often do not have the time to develop high quality clinical research projects while also maintaining a clinical caseload consistent with a full-time clinical internship. Additional barriers to clinical research productivity on the internship year are the time needed to obtain university IRB approval and difficulties in subject recruitment. These problems are avoided by involving interns in faculty-initiated clinical research projects, which minimizes start-up time and enhances the quality of the clinical research experience. To ensure that interns' contributions are substantive and different from graduate student roles, interns and the supervising faculty member develop an educational plan specifying the intern's roles and contributions to that project. This plan is reviewed semi-annually and at the end of the year by the intern, the faculty mentor, and the Director of Psychology Training.

Selection of Clinical Research Projects. The assignment to clinical research projects is completed in the first few weeks of the program by the interns and the Director of Psychology Training. Interns are given the opportunity to observe clinical research projects, discuss these projects with faculty, and read relevant literature related to these projects. Discussions are primarily in group format to encourage collaboration among interns and shared responsibility for program assignments. The process of consensus and collaboration which is required for this selection sets a positive tone for the year by the identification of shared interests and interdependent activities among interns and faculty. Effort is made to match year-long commitments to intern career objectives and graduate school experiences.

Currently there are five clinical research projects available for intern participation: HIV Prevention (CHAMP), Chicago Adolesent Risk and Evaluation Study (CARES), Parenting Assessment Team (PAT), School-Based Mental Health Services (PALS), and delinquency prevention (SAFE). These projects are described in the Research Projects section of the website. The successful inclusion of interns in each of these programs has provided a model for continued involvement of interns in new clinical research programs. Thus, clinical training has become integrated into the research mission of the Institute through these programs, enhancing the stability of the internship training model.