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TRAINING SITES AT CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE
Trainees may be placed in one of a variety of settings throughout
Cambridge Health Alliance. Placements include inpatient settings
for adolescents or children, and outpatient specialty clinics that
focus on behavioral medicine, victims of violence, couples and family
treatment, or the cultural/linguistic clinics. Descriptions of settings
are listed below:
Child Assessment Unit and Adolescent Assessment Unit
These sites provide experience in assessment of and psychotherapeutic
intervention with acutely distressed children and adolescents in
inpatient settings. Diagnoses of patients on the unit include psychoses,
affective disorders, substance abuse and trauma-spectrum illnesses.
The training experience occurs in the context of multidisciplinary
care involving psychiatry, psychology, social work, nursing, occupational
therapy and other forms of intervention. Clinical interventions
include individual psychosocially oriented treatment, family meetings,
extended evaluation and psychological testing. Trainees also develop
skills in the negotiation of complex social systems (e.g., schools,
social service agencies) that interface in the lives of children.
Team meetings and case conferences enhance understanding of the
diagnosis and stabilization process with these acutely distressed
patients.
Cultural/Linguistic Specialty Clinics
In accord with its mission to provide comprehensive and culturally
sensitive care, Cambridge Health Alliance has four specialized outpatient
clinics that provide service to patients from particular cultural
and linguistic communities. In general, staff and trainees working
in these clinics must be fluent in the appropriate language.
Latino Mental Health Clinic: The Latino Mental Health
Clinic provides a full range of outpatient services to Spanish-speaking
persons, including evaluations, psychological testing, and individual,
group, child/adolescent, couples, and family therapy. The community
is comprised of persons who emigrated from Central and South American
Countries, and from the Caribbean. Many patients have been traumatized.
Trainees work as part of a multidisciplinary team. The examination
of cross-cultural issues is an ongoing part of the training.
Portuguese Mental Health Clinic: Part of Cambridge Health
Alliance's Adult Psychiatry Ambulatory Service, the Portuguese
Mental Health Clinic provides a full range of outpatient services
to monolingual Portuguese-speaking persons, including evaluation,
psychological testing, and individual, child/adolescent, and family
therapy. The community is comprised of persons who emigrated from
Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, with the majority
of persons coming from Brazil and the Azores. Trainees work as
part of a multidisciplinary team, and carry a varied caseload.
The consideration of cross-cultural issues is an ongoing part
of the weekly supervision and team meetings.
Asian Mental Health Clinic: The Asian Clinic offers multilingual
outpatient psychological and psychiatric services to Asian individuals
and families in the greater Boston area. The Asian Clinic draws
on a philosophy that appreciates a wide range of Asian backgrounds,
experiences and conflicts. Treatment attempts to address the individual's
emotional and spiritual well being in a safe and culturally sensitive
environment. Special attention is devoted to trauma survivors.
Primary services include outpatient short- and long-term individual,
family and group psychotherapy, psychodiagnostic testing and evaluation,
psychopharmacology, crisis intervention, case management and community
outreach. The clinic also provides consultation to other branches
of Cambridge Health Alliance, and serves as a liaison to community-based
social agencies that serve the Asian community. Proficiency in
an Asian language is preferred.
Haitian Mental Health Clinic: The Haitian Mental Health
Clinic provides culturally and linguistically competent care to
Haitian residents of the greater Boston area, and to French-speaking
immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. Treatment attempts to
reduce the severity of psychosocial dysfunction in a variety of
adult and child patients, and to provide these patients with additional
coping mechanisms to better handle stressors triggered by the
experience of migration. Primary services include child and adult
individual psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, psychodiagnostic
evaluations, psychopharmacology and crisis intervention. The Clinic
also acts as a liaison with community and social agencies that
interface with Haitian patients. French or Haitian Creole proficiency
is preferred. (No applications accepted for 2008-2009).
Behavioral Medicine
In this setting, trainees gain experience in cognitive behavioral
psychotherapy with adults who suffer from a range of anxiety and
mood disorders. Patients in this setting typically present with
panic disorder, phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression
and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Trainees learn such techniques
as cognitive restructuring, biofeedback, hypnotherapy, and other
protocol-based interventions. Instruction in group as well as individual
psychotherapy is provided.
Victims of Violence Program
In this setting, trainees gain experience in the assessment and
provision of short- term, longer-term, individual and group psychotherapy
to an adult population that has experienced significant trauma.
Patients in this setting may present with histories of recent or
remote trauma, and may have suffered single incident trauma or may
have been multiply traumatized throughout their lives. The treatment
program is guided by Dr. Judith Herman's stage model of trauma recovery.
Psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral perspectives are integrated
within appropriate phases of treatment.
Couples and Family Program
In this setting, trainees gain experience in the assessment and
treatment of couples and families. Family systems, contextual, and
narrative approaches are used to understand and intervene with families
that present to the Program. Opportunities are available for live
supervision using a one-way mirror. In addition, there are opportunities
to consult on family issues to a primary-care center, thereby combining
Health Psychology concerns with family treatment.
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