Social Work Internship at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY and CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
1761 BROADWAY, SUITE 100 &
800 Sereno Drive
VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA 94589
(707) 645-2700
THE SETTING
Patient Population
Geographically the Departments of Psychiatry and Chemical Dependency draw its clientele from Solano and Napa Counties and, to a smaller extent, Contra Costa and Sonoma Counties, and serves industrial as well as semi-rural communities. The patient population consists of Kaiser Health Plan members possessing prepaid psychiatric benefits and covers a broad ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic spectrum. All age groups and virtually all psychiatric categories are represented with a predominance of Adjustment disorders and relationship problems. Marital problems and other intra family conflicts also are frequently encountered. With the addition of The Solano Partnership, our clientele also includes people who qualify for Medi-Cal. The ethnic diversity of these counties is also fairly broad, including monolingual families who speak languages such as Spanish, Tagalog, or other Asian languages. Higher costs of living in urban areas have displaced lower income families to seek low cost housing in these adjacent counties.
The Staff
The executive team currently consists of Jamie Woolery, MD, Department Chief, Laurie Wilson, PhD, Chief of Adult Services Team, Roger Spence, LCSW, Chief of Child and Family Services Team, Michell Torres, LCSW Chief of Crisis Services, Steve Priebe, PhD, Chief of Intensive Outpatient Program(IOP), and David Reinstein, LCSW, Coordinator of the Social Work Intern Training Program.
The professional staff consists of full and part-time staff: 10 psychiatrists (two with specialty in child psychiatry), 15 licensed psychiatric social workers and 18 psychologists. A team of triage staff members provides front line access for patients through telephone and face to face contacts. Currently we offer four Social Work internship positions, one of which is dedicated to CDRP. A team of receptionist/secretaries, one medical secretary (transcriptions), and medical record specialists serve the departments on a full/part-time basis.
Services
The Department of Psychiatry provides individual, group, family and play therapy with children, and psycho-educational programs such as stress reduction, couples communication and other classes. It also includes an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) that provides services to recently hospitalized individuals who would otherwise be at risk for hospitalization. The members of the staff represent a variety of theoretical orientations ranging from psychodynamic to cognitive behavioral therapy.
TREATMENT PHILOSOPHY
Overview
The Department of Psychiatry is an interdisciplinary department. Psychiatry coverage for Kaiser members is for brief treatment. In general, you are expected to complete the treatment of your patients during your internship. However, referrals for medication, alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment, or other appropriate services and programs are encouraged. Please discuss referrals to these other services with your supervisor.
The co-payments charged to each Kaiser member vary according to their coverage. The maximum co-pay is $30 per session. Non-Kaiser clients are seen only in the context of family or marital therapy. In the case where a non-covered spouse or parent needs to be seen individually for a session during the treatment of the covered member, they will be charged the member's fee and a visit deducted for the covered member, even though the member is not present.
Schedules
All staff and interns must have an official computerized schedule profile. Please negotiate your schedule with the training director during your first week here. You are expected to follow this schedule unless changes are made and approved by your primary supervisor and the director of training.
Interns are expected to be on the premises during scheduled hours even if patients are not scheduled or have canceled. An electronic time card system accounts for your hours worked. This TIME system will be explained to you as part of your orientation. Michelle Morales, Administrative Specialist will monitor the system.
Changes in Schedule
All changes in the schedule (e.g., absences due to illness, changes in profile to include groups, etc.) must be submitted to Schedule Maintenance. Immediate changes (e.g. due to illness) should be called in to Schedule Maintenance. Anticipated absences or changes must be approved by the training director in writing and submitted to Schedule Maintenance.
Unfortunately, Interns have no official sick leave, vacation, or funeral leave. However, we try to accommodate you within reason. You are not expected to work on any official holiday. However, please note that any time off must be approved by your supervisor/Director of Training and submitted to Schedule Maintenance unless the department is officially closed for a legal holiday.
Extended leave due to serious medical illness or other personal reasons will affect your status and will need to be arranged with your supervisor, approved by the Director of Training and the Field Training Coordinator at your university.
Attendance at Meetings/Seminars
Interns are expected to attend all meetings, supervision, and seminars as listed on the official schedule profile. Absences must be approved by the Director of Training or Stephen Miller.
Record Keeping
Interns are expected to maintain standardized documentation and written notes in the patient files. These files are confidential and may not be removed from the premises under any circumstances. All patient contacts, including telephone calls and letters, are to be documented electronically in the Health Connect Database. Training in this system is provided to all incoming interns and trainees.
Please return hard copy charts to the chartroom as promptly as possible. Anytime you need to check out or transfer a chart you must request it through the department’s computer. Do not remove charts yourself. Complete the “on screen” “medical record request/notice of transfer” form). This is so we can monitor the location of a chart at all times (and to answer a patient inquiry or if another therapist has contact with the case). Never remove a chart from the department, and please do not lock charts in your desk (this makes them inaccessible to chartroom personnel). Please remember that charts are legal documents.
In addition to regular intake evaluations, interns are responsible for completing a DSM-IV diagnosis on all of their patients. Interns are also responsible for discussing their internship status with patients and for having their patients sign the appropriate release. A copy of this release must be filed in the patient's chart.
THE TRAINING PROGRAM
General Principles
The basic training philosophy adopted by this department stresses a commitment to a continuous reassessment, modification, and enrichment of counseling techniques.
Interns will be exposed to a unique and diverse community. There will be a clear emphasis on his/her role of the social worker in a multi-cultural community and outpatient setting. Interns will be encouraged to become familiar with the demographic composition of the community in which our clients reside.
The Best Practices literature serves as the curriculum for the training program. This body of literature is comprised of well researched guidelines for the treatment of various mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
The internship consists of three components:
- Regular and intensive exposure through active participation to all facets of outpatient services.
- Professional guidance through sessions of formal supervision, staff meetings and informal contacts with staff members.
- Regular weekly training seminars.
Supervision
Interns will receive at least two (2) hours of regularly scheduled individual supervision. In addition, they will be supervised on cases in their seminars. All cases must be supervised. Selection of cases and size of caseload is carefully adjusted to the intern's readiness and training needs as determined by his/her supervisor. The intern is responsible for keeping a log of all supervision contacts to be reviewed and initialed at the end of each supervision hour. This log is to be turned in to the supervisor at the end of each month.
Supervision of Urgent Cases
Interns are expected to review urgent cases with their supervisors immediately, and not wait for the regularly scheduled supervision time. If the assigned supervisor is not available, interns should approach his/her other supervisor. In the event that no assigned supervisor is available, the intern should ask for direction from any member of the training staff or department administrative team. These contacts must be documented on the Supervision Log and reported to the assigned supervisor. The following problems are considered urgent and should fall under these guidelines:
- Client is becoming more depressed/ having suicidal ideation.
- Client is becoming explosive.
- Client makes a threat against someone.
- A parent is feeling out of control around a child.
- A parent is substance abusing, etc., in a way which could contribute to neglect of a child.
- A parent is in any way in danger of neglecting a child.
- There has been domestic violence between spouses.
- There is any question of physical or sexual abuse of a child.
- An elderly person may be being abused or neglected.
- A client seems to be losing reality contact or not able to provide him/herself with food, clothing and shelter.
Evaluations
The primary supervisor will be responsible for completing your school evaluation in collaboration with the rest of the training staff. All efforts will be made to provide ongoing feedback to interns throughout the year.
Grievances
Any problem, which might arise, should be addressed with the intern's primary supervisor. If the problem cannot be resolved, then this matter should be taken up by the Director of Training. Ongoing communication between the training staff and the intern's academic program staff is expected. Please consult with the Policy and Procedures manual for a more lengthy description of grievances and disciplinary actions.
Offices
Currently we have two offices designated for interns. These offices will be your “home base” – a desk and files for your books, purses, etc.
Because of space problems, we have scheduled most of your meetings,
seminars and supervision for Tuesday’s -the day when all the
staff are here and the space problems are most acute. It will be challenging
to find a room to do therapy on Tuesdays.
To locate a room, consult the white board near the copy machine (again
across from the mail boxes). This board lists staff who are off duty,
ill or on vacation and whose rooms may be available. Please note that
you may only sign up to use a room in an hour that you have a patient
actually scheduled and that in cases of conflict permanent staff have
priority on the room.
Application Process
Inquiries regarding the application process can be sent to:
Psychiatry Department
Kaiser Permanente, Vallejo
1761 Broadway, Suite 100
Vallejo, CA 94589
Director of Training: David Reinstein
707-645-2285 Email: david.reinsten@kp.org