Original_To:  JNET%"DEAF-L@SIUCVMB"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Mon, 23 Nov 1992 09:12:00 EDT
From:         RQPO@UORDB4.BITNET
Subject:      MENTAL HEALTH TRAINEES SOUGHT

                            Announcing:

                    A PROGRAM FOR DEAF TRAINEES
                              at the
              UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER
                     DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY

The National Institute of Mental Health has funded a program to
train mental health professionals who are deaf or hard of hearing
at the practicum, internship and fellowship levels.  This program,
the first of its kind in the country, was established at the
University of Rochester Medical Center by Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry (Psychology) Robert Pollard, Ph.D.

Four training positions will be available annually during the
three year course of this grant -- one for a postdoctoral
psychologist, one for a predoctoral psychologist, one for an
individual with one or more years of graduate education in
clinical social work or a related mental health field, and one for
a BSW student.  A modest stipend is paid for all post-
baccalaureate positions.  Applicants must be deaf or hard of
hearing and fluent in American Sign Language.  In accordance with
the ethnic-compatibility intent of this NIMH grant, the emphasis
for these deaf trainees will be on serving deaf patients but not
exclusively so.

In this program, multidisciplinary as well as discipline-specific
didactic and experiential training is provided, where assessment,
treatment, consultation, and research activities are interwoven.
Each trainee will receive a rich, linguistically accessible, and
culturally appropriate training experience that will ready them
not only for independent practice but for advancing to leadership
positions involving service, teaching, and/or research in the high
need area of deafness and mental health.

The trainees will receive experience in a number of outpatient and
inpatient treatment settings that serve a broad array of deaf (and
hearing) patients.  The majority of the clinical work will take
place in the University of Rochester Medical Center's Department
of Psychiatry.  Trainees will also be assigned rotations in three
Rochester area mental health facilities that have special programs
for deaf patients -- an inpatient alcohol clinic, a residential
treatment facility for deaf children, and the psychological
services division of the National Technical Institute for the
Deaf.

The faculty of this program includes five sign-fluent mental
health professionals, two of whom are deaf.  These individuals,
along with the other deaf professionals employed at each of the
four training sites, provide supervision and serve as role models
for these trainees.  Ample sign language interpreting services are
also provided in this program, for those times when trainees
interact with non-signing faculty, staff, and patients.  An
additional attraction of this program is its location in the
acclaimed deafness-sophisticated environment of Rochester, New
York, home of the largest per-capita deaf population in the world.

Applications are now being accepted for all positions.  The 1992-
1993 positions will be filled on an ongoing basis until all four
candidates are selected.  Their program will begin as soon as
possible thereafter, hopefully by March of 1993.  Applications for
1993-1994 positions are also being accepted at this time, although
these candidates will not begin their program until the Fall of
1993.  To request application materials or for further
information, contact:

                    Robert Pollard, Ph.D.
                    Department of Psychiatry
                    University of Rochester Medical Center
                    300 Crittenden Boulevard
                    Rochester, NY  14642
                    (716) 275-3544 v/TDD
                    Bitnet:  RQPO@UORDBV
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l