The clinic receives referrals from all over the hospital for psychotherapy, stress management, community outreach, and medication evaluations. It is a good setting for interns to master mental status evaluations and intake interviewing skills and to use this data to make rapid diagnostic and treatment planning decisions. Interns are supervised by psychologists associated with the University of Texas Health Science Center and participate in evaluating and treating child or adolescent patients within an acute inpatient psychiatric setting. Patients range in age from 3 to 19 and represent all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds from the South Texas catchment area. The primary focus of interns' clinical activity is diagnostic psychological testing as part of a comprehensive multidisciplinary psychiatric evaluation.
Interns also can participate as co-therapists for brief family therapy.
There are also opportunities for attending weekly multidisciplinary case conference and monthly psychodynamic trauma conferences on site. This assignment is a multi-focused training experience in geriatric and extended care programs in the hospital. The goal is to provide experience in working with elderly patients in a variety of care settings. Interns work with patients requiring long-term care, either in the hospital or community, and have the opportunity to work closely with other professionals on an interdisciplinary treatment team. Interns gain experience with a broad spectrum of assessment techniques, including personality, neuropsychological, and behavioral observations.