OPEN POSITION: 2024-2025 Year
This message is for any unmatched applicants who are looking for a unique and incredible training opportunity for their internship / residency year!
Interns with experience and training working with Adults within a Clinical or Counselling Graduate Training program are welcome to apply for Phase 2. Opportunities are available for minor experiences working with youth if desired in one of our partner organizations.
QUICK FACT:
The position comes with opportunity for in-patient, out-patient, and health rotations so you can tailer your training year to meet your goals.
MAJOR EXPERIENCES
Here are descriptions of the 6 major rotations available for residents matched to the adult track (each 4 months in length):
Health Rotations:
Bariatrics
The Regional Bariatric Care Centre provides assessment and treatment for patients seeking weight management services. The psychology resident will work closely with an interdisciplinary treatment team and will have the opportunity to conduct program intakes and individual psychotherapy, to co-facilitate a skills training group, and to complete psychosocial assessments for evaluation of suitability for bariatric surgery.
Chronic Pain
The resident will join a large inter-professional team for the four month rotation. Initially, you will be immersed in the program, by attending daily education, gentle movement and relaxation sessions and co-leading individual therapy sessions. As you become more familiar with chronic pain management, you will lead/co-lead group education and therapy sessions and have a small caseload of therapy clients. There will be an opportunity for consultation at weekly rounds and during weekly ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) sessions. ECHO didactics and case consultations are presented to professionals in Northwestern Ontario via video/telephone links.
Inpatient Rotations:
Adult Mental Health – Acute Inpatient
Adult Mental Health is a 32 bed inpatient unit providing comprehensive care to individuals experiencing acute mental health concerns. A strong interdisciplinary team is essential to acute care therefore residents in our program work closely alongside psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and recreation therapists. This rotation can provide a wide range of assessment and intervention experience with a diverse population. Assessment opportunities typically involve psychodiagnostic and/or cognitive testing resulting in integrated assessment reports. Interventions can range from providing brief therapy and psychoeducation to helping connect clients to resources upon discharge from hospital. Residents also facilitate daily group programming based on Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and mindfulness principles.
Mental Health Rehabilitation Inpatient
Mental Health Rehabilitation Services provides a variety of psychological services on an inpatient basis to individuals with severe and complex mental health difficulties (primary admission criteria is psychosis). Services include individual psychological and/or cognitive assessment, individual and group psychological therapy and consultation to the interdisciplinary team. Theoretical approaches include CBT, DBT and behavioural case conceptualization and intervention. There is opportunity to work with clients for a brief duration or for the entire 4 month rotation Clients typically stay 3-6 months on the unit.
Outpatient Rotations:
Brief Intervention Treatment Team (BITT)
The Brief Intervention Treatment Program or BITT program is an interdisciplinary outpatient program that accepts referrals from the Adult Mental Health unit and the Emergency Room at TBRHSC. It consists of psychiatry, social work, nursing and psychology. This rotation provides an excellent opportunity for intervention, both individual and group. A 12-week process group is run by both psychology staff and the resident to allow the individual to gain skills in facilitating a process group and take part in debriefing with the team afterward. The resident also carries a small caseload and attends morning team rounds with the Mental Health Assessment Team from the Emergency Room, as well as consultation with psychiatry, nursing, and social work once a week. Diagnostic assessment opportunities are available. BITT team provides services to a diverse population in a timely and short-term manner often bridging to longer term services.
Mental Health Outpatient Program
This rotation is primarily viewed as an opportunity to further hone treatment and assessment skills working with individuals 16 years of age or older presenting with a variety of mental health diagnosis and symptom presentations. Residents completing a 4 month major rotation at Mental Health Outpatient Program will have the opportunity to train in the following core competencies:
- Co-lead at least one manualized evidenced based group
- 3-5 psychological assessments (tailored to provide personality, IQ, cognitive, psychopathology, diagnostic experiences)
- A caseload of 5-6 individual patients for individual therapy.
MINOR EXPERIENCES
At times, residents may have an interest in gaining exposure to a particular experience that would not be reflected in the major rotations. A strength of our internship program, is flexibility, and there is the possibility of arranging other minor experiences that could occur while in your major rotations.
These experiences could include conducting an assessment in the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit (CAMHU) at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, experiences within the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service at St. Joseph's Health Centre, running a group at the Sister Margaret Smith Centre within the Eating Disorders Program, working with children (up to age 18) through Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, running a group in the Complex Diabetes Program, running a group in Bariatrics (if this is not one of your three major rotations), gerontology, neuropsychology, assessment experience up in our Northern Rotation setting, and addictions). Minor experiences are contingent on supervisor availability and would be arranged to co-occur with major rotation experiences in the same organization to reduce travel time and interference with your main rotation learning goals.
Specifically, at Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, residents have worked within Infant and Child Services (0-6), Autism Services (0-7), Youth and Adolescent Services (6-18), Youth Justice, Day Treatment and Live-in Treatment Services with youth. More descriptions about each of these services are available upon request if you are considering obtaining some experiences in this setting.
