American Psychological Association Accreditation

On January 30, 2004, Wasatch Mental Health submitted a self-study to the American Psychological Association Committee on Accreditation (CoA). If you would like to view the document:

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The APA Committee on Accreditation conducted a site visit in July, 2004 and in October, 2004 awarded full accreditation to Wasatch Mental Health for seven years and scheduled the next site visit for 2011.

Statement of Diversity

Wasatch Mental Health offers an APA Accredited Pre-doctoral
Psychology Internship Training Program

Location
Wasatch Mental Health serves the residents of Utah County with a complete range of mental health services and is located about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. This county has a population of approximately 450,000 people. The Provo-Orem area and the state of Utah have been cited in national publications over the past several years as being among the most livable areas in the United States. This area of Utah, which is bordered by the scenic Wasatch mountain range on the East and Utah Lake on the West, has distinct seasons which provide a variety of recreational experiences including: fishing, skiing, golfing, hiking and hunting. The area offers bus services, a relatively low crime rate, art and cultural activities, a moderate cost of living, and scenic mountain ranges. Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University are both located in the Provo-Orem area.

Patient Population
The major populations served are Medicaid recipients, people with acute or severe emotional problems and other low-income families of whom a majority are white. A total of approximately 5000 individuals receive services each year. Minorities served include mostly Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Hispanics; however, African Americans, Asians and others are also represented to a smaller degree.

 Main Offices
The main offices of Wasatch Mental Health are located at 750 North 200 West in Provo near the center of Utah County. The main office building houses the administrative offices, crisis services, adult outpatient services, adult case management services, and programs for the homeless and uninsured. Wasatch Mental Health recently completed construction of a new Youth and Family treatment building which houses, Youth Outpatient Services, Youth Day Treatment and Youth Case Management. This new building is on a campus with other Wasatch Mental Health facilities which include; IRT, an intensive residential treatment facility for adults; Lakeview, a day treatment facility for adults; Maple View, residential apartments for adults; Park View, a youth administrative and multipurpose facility; Vantage Point, a short term residential treatment program for youth and New Vista, a teen sex offender residential treatment facility.

 Mission
The mission of Wasatch Mental Health is to provide comprehensive behavioral health care services with professional excellence, to improve, enhance and positively impact the well-being, recovery and quality of life of individuals who experience mental illness or behavioral disabilities. Wasatch Mental Health will also provide community education and information services to combat ignorance and stigma associated with mental illness, and promote and champion awareness of the reality, commonality and effectiveness of treatment for these disorders.

Values and Beliefs
We believe:
1. In the efficacy of Treatment and the reality of recovery; that all individuals have the capacity for improvement.
2. In Client Centered Services which are Individualized, Flexible and Comprehensive; that all individuals receive the best and most appropriate services possible regardless of race, ethnicity, age, religion, sex, life-style, social or economic status, and that all people have a right to be treated kindly, with dignity, respect, cultural sensitivity and confidentiality.
3. In Family Focused/Community-Based Services, provided in the least restrictive environment.
4. In Readily Accessible Services, assuring immediacy for crisis intervention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
5. In broad based Community Input and Citizen Participation to receive feedback and recommendations to continually improve services.
6. In the importance of Financial Viability and Integrity to assure cost effectiveness and public accountability.
7. In Outcome-Based Services as determined by ongoing assessments, research and evaluation, consumer satisfaction and goal achievement.
8. In Continuous Quality Improvement, and ongoing education and training to assure best practice and adaptation to state of the art sciences.
9. In A Client's Right to be empowered in his or her own care and treatment, when appropriate, and to actively promote and advocate for clients rights.
10. In the importance of Case Collaboration and Allied Agency Cooperation, to assure effective and proper continuity of care.
11. In the ongoing pursuit of funding to cover costs of Care for Those Most in Need of services and who are without the ability to pay.
12. That the staff and services of Wasatch Mental Health will make a measurable and Positive Difference in the lives of its clients and their families.

Mandated Services
Wasatch Mental Health is the capitated Medicaid mental health provider and the contracted public mental health provider for Utah County, Utah. In order to meet the requirements of Medicaid and the State of Utah, the following services are provided: inpatient, residential, day treatment, case management, outpatient, 24-hour crisis and referral screening. Wasatch Mental Health also provides, coordinates or supports additional services for patients such as representative payee services, housing, transportation to needed mental health services, employment and rehabilitation.
Our main priority is to provide services to adults with serious and persistent mental health illnesses (SPMI) and children who suffer severe emotional disturbance (SED). The following guidelines apply in prioritizing the service that we provide:

·        Medicaid recipients with mental illness

·        Individuals in psychological crisis

·        Severely mentally ill children, youth and adults

·        Acutely mentally ill children, youth and adults

·        Emotionally disabled individuals whose improved functioning is critical for their future and for society in general.

·        Moderately impaired individuals and families.

Commitment to Professional Training
Wasatch Mental Health is committed to professional training in several fields. The Internship in Clinical Psychology is one of several training programs at Wasatch Mental Health. Others include practicum experience for those pursuing a bachelor degree in social work, master-level internships in clinical social work and professional counseling, and internships in nursing. Wasatch Mental Health has demonstrated consistent commitment to psychology training since its creation. The program has made consistent improvement since becoming a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) in 1988 and obtained full American Psychological Association (APA) accreditation in 2004.

Professional Staff
There are about 350 employees at Wasatch Mental Health; including about 85 who are licensed professionals. Among these are seven licensed psychologists who are the core faculty for the psychology internship program. In addition to our licensed psychologists and psychology interns, we also have three post-doctoral psychology resident positions. The professional clinical staff also includes psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, licensed clinical social workers, marriage/family therapists, and professional counselors. Wasatch Mental Health also has strong case management/skills development programs staffed by bachelor-level social service workers.

Psychology Staff and Faculty

Juergen E. Korbanka, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Intern Supervisor

California School of Integrated Studies

Theodore "Ted" Terry, Ph.D.

Wasatch Mental Health
Associate Director

Chief Psychologist
Brigham Young University

Randal S. Pennington, Psy.D.
 Director of Training

Intern Supervisor
Pacific University School of Professional Psychology

Geri Aldredge, PhD
Program Manager Crisis and Inpatient

Intern Supervisor
Brigham Young University

Lawrence P. Dunning, Ph.D.
Youth Psychologist

Intern Supervisor
Brigham Young University

Brian Arnesen, Ph.D.
Youth Psychologist
Brigham Young University

Richard DeMolen, Psy.D.

Adults Psychology Resident

Forest Institute of Professional Psychology

Rick T. Biesinger, Psy.D.

Youth Psychology Resident

Forest Institute of Professional Psychology

Following is a sample of professionals who have provided instruction as guest lecturers in specialty areas:

Brian J. Taracena, Psy.D.
Private Practice Psychologist

Gary Burlingame, Ph.D.
Faculty: Brigham Young University

Michael Lambert, Ph.D.
Faculty: Brigham Young University

Josep Yau, M.D.
Clinical Director, Valley Mental Health

Aaron Bigler, Ph.D., ABPP
Faculty; Brigham Young University and University of Utah

Members of the clinical and administrative staff of Wasatch Mental Health also provide instruction for the interns. A sample of those follows:

Dean Anderson, LCSW
Program Manager, Wasatch Mental Health

Colleen Harper, LCSW
Program Manager, Wasatch Mental Health

Catherine Johnson, LCSW
Program Manager, Wasatch Mental Health

Tim McGaughy, M.D.
Director of Medical Services, Wasatch Mental Health

Description of The Training Program
The primary objective of the clinical psychology internship program is to prepare doctoral candidates for entry-level positions in professional psychology. The psychology interns are expected to integrate theoretical, clinical and professional issues into a general psychology practice. The focus of education and training is on enhancing previous academic and practicum training with instruction, supervision and experience in providing psychological services in a multidisciplinary publicly owned community mental health organization. Wasatch Mental Health subscribes to a local clinical scientist model that encourages the intern to develop as a generalist, promoting an evidenced-based approach to clinical practice. The internship program is fully APA accredited. The training program is organized with a yearlong assignment in adult outpatient, youth outpatient, and psychological evaluation. These assignments are concurrent with each intern spending a part of each week in each assignment. We have found that this approach improves continuity of care for the clients. Supervised practice is required in the following areas: psychotherapy with youth, families and adults through our outpatient clinics, intake evaluations, and psychological evaluations including disability determination, parental fitness, psycho-sexual risk assessment, neuropsychological and general psychological evaluations. There is an emphasis on the clinical documentation required by governmental agencies and funders. Psychology interns participate in interdisciplinary team conferences on a weekly basis. They also have opportunities to consult with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, professional counselors, mental health workers, caseworkers, and administrative staff. They consult with and provide liaison with other agencies including schools, social service agencies, courts and other mental health facilities.

Supervision Opportunities
Supervision/training includes at least two hours of individual supervision and two hours of group supervision per week; weekly group supervision sessions devoted to evidenced-based treatment/evaluation and supervision/consultation, as well as weekly didactic training seminars presented by Wasatch Mental Health psychologists, other Wasatch Mental Health professional staff members and guest lecturers. The primary supervising psychologists are extremely well prepared having each provided many years of mental health services.

Notice to Psychology Interns of Diverse Populations
And Those Interested in Working with Special Needs Patients

In keeping with APA's initiative to embrace diversity, Wasatch Mental Health is actively seeking to recruit psychology interns from a wide range of students of diversity as well as students who have special interests, talents, or experience in working with diverse populations.
About 1/3 of our total clientele are judged to be seriously and persistently mentally ill or severely emotionally disturbed and about 13% identify themselves with a non-majority racial group, excluding Hispanic. About 7% of our clientele identify themselves as Hispanic. We always have a need for Spanish-speaking clinicians.

Stipend
The internship stipend is $19,988.00 for 12 months beginning August 6, 2008, including two weeks of vacation/sick leave, two days of professional leave, and eleven paid holidays.

Application Process
There are five pre-doctoral internship positions available. Each applicant must meet the following requirements:

·        Be in good standing in a Ph.D. or Psy.D. Doctoral program in clinical or counseling psychology.

·        Completed a minimum of 250 hours direct therapy and 500 hours of supervised doctoral practicum experience by the internship start date.

·        Be recommended by the Program Training Director as Internship ready.

·        Have collected dissertation data by the internship start date.
Successful applicants must submit to and pass a Background Criminal Investigation (BCI) required by the State of Utah. Forms for completing the BCI will be provided to the successful applicants following selection.

 Applicants must submit the following:

·         An APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI), which includes a Verification of Internship Eligibility and Readiness signed by the Director of Training. This can be found at http://www.appic.org/

·        Official transcripts of graduate work

·        Letters of recommendation from three persons who are familiar with the candidate's professional and academic performance.

·        A current Curriculum Vita

How to find National Matching Services, Inc.

Wasatch Mental Health will use the computerized matching program provided by National Matching Services, Inc. The Applicant Agreement Package for NMS is available at: http://www.natmatch.com/psychint

Completed applications are due December 1st.  Applicants will be notified of their inclusion or exclusion in the interviewing process by December 15^th.
Send application and supporting documents to:

Randal S. Pennington, Psy.D.

Director of Psychological Training

rpenning@wasatch.org

Wasatch Mental Health
750 North 200 West
Provo, Utah 84601
Telephone: (801) 373-4760
FAX: (801) 373-0639