Social Work Internship at Kaiser Permanente Richmond
Department of Psychiatry
Kaiser Permanente, Richmond
901 Nevin Ave, Building C
Richmond, CA 94801
INTERNSHIP IN CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK
We offer two MSW intern positions in clinical social work with possible rotations in Adult and Chemical Dependency Services, and the Adult Intensive Outpatient Program.
THE SETTING
The Richmond Area
Kaiser Permanente's East Bay Area includes its flagship Oakland and Richmond medical centers, which first took care of Richmond shipyard workers during World War II, then opened to the public in 1945. Today the East Bay Area encompasses 11 cities and municipalities within Alameda County and the western part of Contra Costa County. About 700 physicians and 5,000 employees serve 260,000 members in the East Bay Area. Hospitals, medical office buildings, and pharmacies are located in the Oakland Medical Center (including medical offices in Alameda) and Richmond Medical Center. The City of Richmond has 95,000 residents and is home to Gayle McLaughlin, the first Green mayor of a major U.S. city.
Patient Population
The patient population consists of Kaiser Health Plan members having prepaid psychiatric benefits and covering a broad ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic spectrum. All age groups and virtually all psychiatric categories are represented. The Parity Case Management program serves patients with severe and persistent mental illnesses with a history of psychiatric hospitalizations and current psychosocial stressors including poverty, tenuous family relationships, substance use, and adjustment to new psychiatric diagnoses.
The Staff
The Kaiser Richmond Department of Psychiatry is large, consisting of Licenses Clinical Social Workers, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, 1 Marriage and Family Therapist, and 1 Clinical Nurse Specialist (RN). The Department has 35 clinicians and additional support staff.
Services
The Department of Psychiatry provides individual, group, adult, child and family services. There are specialties in depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and neuropsychological assessments (adult and pediatric), as well as psycho-educational programs including couples communication and depression class, through the Health Education Department. There is also an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) designed to address the needs of high acuity psychiatric patients. The Department also offers an intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Program aimed at reducing high risk behaviors and increasing the quality of life of patients with personality disorders. The catchment area for Kaiser Richmond has a significant number of monolingual Latino patients who are served by bilingual clinicians within the Department.
THE TRAINING PROGRAM
General principles
The training philosophy is deeply steeped in clinical social work and utilizes the Biopsychosocial Model in assessing and treating the patients. Interns are exposed to a unique and diverse community. There is a clear emphasis on the role of the clinical social worker in a multi-disciplinary setting serving a multi-cultural community in an outpatient setting. Interns will work with individual patients in addition to co-facilitating groups.
The internship consists of three components:
- Regular exposure through active participation to all facets of outpatient services, including collaboration with clinic staff to co-lead groups and co-treat patients.
- Professional guidance through sessions of formal individual supervision and informal contacts with clinic staff members.
- Regular weekly 2-hour training seminars.
Supervision
Residents will receive at least one (1) hours of regularly scheduled individual supervision. In addition, they will be supervised on cases in their seminars. Selection of cases and size of caseload is carefully adjusted to the intern's readiness and training needs as determined by the training supervisor. Regular process recordings are expected from the clinical supervisors.
Seminars
Interns attend 2 hours of group training per week. Seminars are dedicated to: 1) Didactic trainings, including crisis work, psychopharmacology, mental status exams, and working with dually-diagnosed patients and self-mutilating patients; and 2) Group supervision, rooted in a particular clinical theory of psychotherapy, such as psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, dialectic-behavioral, and family work. Seminars are taught by social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists.
Evaluations
The primary supervisors are responsible for completing the interns’ evaluations. There are two evaluations of the interns; at mid-year and at the end of the year. An effort is made to provide ongoing feedback. Interns have an opportunity to evaluate the Kaiser-Northern California Training program/staff twice a year.
Grievances
Initially, any problems that arise are addressed with the intern’s primary supervisor. If the matter cannot be resolved informally, it is then referred to the respective School of Social Work for intervention.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Requirements:
- Must be a second year MSW student
- Mental Health Concentration only at this time
- Notify School that you are considering interviewing at Kaiser Richmond
- Once approved by school, contact Patrik J. Karlsson, LCSW at 510.307.1620 to set up interview
- Email resume with cover letter outlining interests to patrik.karlsson@kp.org