Social Work Internship at
Kaiser Permanente San Jose
KAISER PERMANENTE, SAN JOSE
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
175 Bernal Road Suite 140
San Jose, California 95119
(408) 972-3099
Cynthia Francis@kp.org
MSW/MFT INTERNSHIP
The Department of Psychiatry currently offers two one year, full-time post master’s level social worker and/or marriage and family therapist internships in the Child and Adolescent Clinic.
THE SETTING
The South Bay
San Jose is in the heart of Silicon Valley, strategically positioned in the South Bay of the greater San Francisco Bay Region. San Jose has a population of 1 million people within both urban and suburban settings in a temperate climate. San Jose is conveniently located within a ½ hour drive to the beaches in Santa Cruz, 1 hour drive to San Francisco and 4 hour drive to South Lake Tahoe. San Jose is a community rich in the diversity of many cultures and ethnic groups, particularly Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islanders and European groups. Entertainment, food and holiday celebrations reflect the myriad cultural experiences you can have in San Jose.
Patient Population
The patient population consists of Kaiser Health Plan members possessing prepaid psychiatric benefits and covers broad ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic spectrums. Kaiser San Jose is located in south San Jose with easy access from freeways 85, 87 and 101. We have 240,000 members served by our area which includes medical offices at Kaiser San Jose Community Hospital and Gilroy Medical Clinics.
The patient population served by Kaiser San Jose includes families who speak a variety of languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Ilocano and Punjabi. Families seek services to support them in adjustment to divorce, behavior problems at home and school, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, child abuse, eating disorders, and various other family issues such as sibling rivalry, communication difficulties, parenting challenges, cultural differences and learning problems.
The Staff
The Child and Adolescent Clinic at San Jose has the largest number of staff members in the Northern California Region for Child and Adolescent services. The staff includes four psychologists, four psychiatrists, eight clinical social workers, six marriage and family therapists, two nurses, three postdoctoral psychology residents, two Stanford psychiatry fellows, one ASW, and two marriage and family therapist interns. Most of the staff work full time.
Cynthia Francis, MFT, is the Director of Training and is responsible for coordinating training and supervision of the for the Post-Masters MFT and MSW interns. She also teaches the advanced seminars in Kaiser Best Practices for postdoctoral residents.
Leticia Alan, LCSW, provides group supervision and supervises Spanish-speaking post masters MSW and MFT interns.
The Autism Spectrum Disorders Center, founded by its director Pilar Bernal, M.D., is currently the only ASD center in the Kaiser Northern California Region. The ASD Center staff consists of two psychologists, two psychiatrists, one developmental pediatrician, and one LCSW.
Services
The department offers outpatient therapy to parents, families, and children. The therapy coverage for most Kaiser members is focused, brief treatment, although patients with severe and chronic problems have access to ongoing services. Treatment for many diagnostic groups is informed by Kaiser’s Best Practice guidelines, developed and periodically updated by regional work groups. Patients are encouraged to participate in classes and groups that are offered for most problem areas.
The On Call/Triage Team for the Child and Adolescent Clinic screens and conducts triage of all incoming calls for clinic services and provides consultation and evaluation to child and adolescent patients in the Emergency Department and hospital inpatient pediatric unit. It assigns intake appointments, directs patients to appropriate orientation sessions and coordinates all pediatric psychiatry consultation requests from Kaiser pediatricians.
The Preschool Treatment Program provides individual intake evaluations for children from ages two through five years old. Treatment may include parenting classes, social skills education, group therapy, behavior plans and case management as well as individual and family therapy. Examples of classes and treatment groups include the Parents of Preschool Program and Parent Project Junior.
The School Age Treatment Program provides intake evaluations for children from ages 6 through 12 attending elementary school. Treatment may include parenting classes, social skills education, group therapy, behavior plans, case management, and school consultation as well as individual and family therapy. Examples of classes and treatment groups include a parenting and social skills classes, Parent Project Junior, Fear Busters, Families in Transition, parent education and child observation of ADHD patients with dedicated parenting and social skills classes for ADHD.
The Early Adolescent Treatment Program provides intake evaluations for children from ages 12 through 14. Treatment may include parenting classes, social skills education, group therapy, behavior plans, case management, and school consultation as well as individual and family therapy. Examples of classes and treatment groups include dedicated groups for parents and social skills training for early adolescents, anger management, middle school boys social skills group, and middle school girls group.
The Adolescent Treatment Program provides intake evaluations for children from ages 14 through 18 attending high school. Treatment may include parenting classes, social skills education, anger management, group therapy, behavior plans, case management, and school consultation as well as individual and family therapy. Examples of classes and treatment groups include the Teen Crisis program for parents and teens, group therapy and social skills training for teens, eating disorder program for teens, teen depression overview for parents and teens and a teen depression group.
The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) team provides at least
twice-weekly services to parents and adolescents to prevent hospitalization
of high risk teens and to provide post hospitalization services
to recently discharged adolescents and their parents.
The Spanish speaking team consists of one psychiatrist, one LCSW
and two MFTs who provide daytime on call/triage services, intakes
and evaluations, ADHD evaluations, individual, family and group
psychotherapy, parenting classes and parenting support groups for
Spanish speaking families.
The ASD Center team provides psychological evaluations and treatment
plans and coordinates case management for ASD referrals from psychiatry
and pediatric clinics throughout the Kaiser Northern California
Region. After evaluation, the team completes a diagnostic report
and treatment plan to be implemented by the referring facility
The Medication Evaluation and Education team conducts medication
evaluations and treatment for children and adolescents. It also
provides medication education classes for parents and teens and
medication consultation to pediatricians.
THE TRAINING PROGRAM
General Principles
In practice, the resident/intern is expected to conduct evaluations and treatment to meet the mental health needs of a diverse population of patients who are members of a health maintenance organization, with guidance and supervision from a primary supervisor and secondary supervisors. Most residents have contact with more than 100 outpatients over the training year and have experience co-leading or leading groups and psycho-educational classes. Residents/interns will also provide psycho-education and mental health consultation to parents, school staff and other community organizations that provide services to children, adolescents and parents.
Supervision
Coordination of supervision, schedules, training assignments, and administration issues is the responsibility of the Director of Training. The primary supervisor is responsible for the supervision of the resident’s/intern’s clinical work. Each resident/intern works under the primary supervisor’s license. The postdoctoral resident must register with the California Board of Psychology as a Psychological Assistant, and the post masters interns will register with the Board of Behavioral Science Examiners. Each patient seen by the resident/intern is informed at the time of telephone contact, and then before being seen, in writing, of the professional status of the resident/intern. The primary supervisor provides at least two hours of face-to-face individual supervision a week and is available by telephone throughout the work week. Two hours of weekly group supervision is also provided.
The resident/intern is responsible for keeping a log of all supervision contacts to be reviewed and initialed at the end of each supervision hour. If the primary supervisor is not available, the resident/intern shall receive supervision from the secondary supervisor assigned, who will review and initial the supervision log. Supervision of videotaped therapy sessions is also available.
Seminars
All residents and interns will attend a weekly hour-long seminar provided by supervisors and clinical staff who present on topics relevant to training. All residents/interns will attend a monthly pediatric psychiatry case conference and monthly continuing education all staff training provided by the San Jose Department of Psychiatry. Each month, the postdoctoral residents will attend an afternoon workshop on Best Practice topics, such as panic treatment, depression treatment, DBT etc. Postdoctoral residents will attend weekly advanced seminars on Best Practices topics including a monthly training on psychological testing and evaluation. Post masters interns will attend a series of regional training seminars, which they will attend quarterly.
Evaluations
Evaluations are based on ratings of skills and competencies, primarily by the primary supervisor. Each resident’s/intern’s progress in training is reviewed and signed off by the resident /intern, the primary supervisor and the director of training every six months.
Grievance procedure
Any problem which might arise should be addressed with the resident’s/intern’s primary supervisor. If the problem cannot be resolved, the matter should be taken up by the training director. Ongoing communication between the training staff and the resident/intern is expected.
Offices
The Child and Adolescent Clinic currently has three offices for
resident/intern use.
Apply To:
Department of Psychiatry
Kaiser Permanente, San Jose
175 Bernal Road Suite 140
San Jose, California 95119
Director of Training: Cynthia Francis, MFT
408-972-4366
E-mail: cynthia.francis@kp.org