Interprofessional Fellowship in Psychosocial Rehabilitation & Recovery Oriented Services

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced its commitment to interprofessional clinical care and training in psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery for veterans with serious mental illness in 2002. Through collaboration between Mental Health Services and the Office of Academic Affiliations, three VA healthcare sites were selected and funded to begin the VA Interprofessional Fellowship Program in Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery (PSR). In 2006, VA announced the expansion of the PSR fellowship progfram to four additional sites.

The purpose of the Interprofessional PSR Fellowship Program is to develop future mental health leaders with vision, knowledge, and commitment to transform mental health care systems in the 21st century by emphasizing functional capability, rehabilitation, and recovery.

Program Overview

The Interprofessional PSR Fellowship Program is a state-of-the-art clinical training program that focuses on the theory and practice of psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery. Individualized, mentored clinical and research training is combined with a curriculum that emphasizes a comprehensive psychosocial rehabilitation approach to service delivery, education, and implementing change in a mental health care setting.

Fellowship Positions & Disciplines

The PSR Fellowship Program is a year long, and each PSR fellowship program has from 4 to 6 full-time fellow positions. The fellows come from a range of disciplines, including nursing, social work, psychiatry, psychology, vocational rehabilitation, occupational therapy, and Chaplaincy/Clinical Pastoral Education. Fellows come to the fellowship with previous experience in working with veterans with serious mental illness.

Clinical Training

The fellowship program utilizes a comprehensive psychosocial rehabilitation approach to restore a veteran's full potential following the onset of a serious mental illness. Fellows are involved in a number of clinical training experiences such as veteran and family education; enhancement of residential, social, and work skills; cognitive behavioral therapy; motivational interviewing; pharmacotherapy; and provision of intensive care coordination.

Education Dissemination Project

Fellows are required to develop and implement an "Education Dissemination Project" in order to enhance the education of health professionals and the quality of care provided to veterans at their respective fellowship sites. The projects enhance the psychosocial rehabilitation beyond the training site. The projects focus on a variety of dissemination efforts such as developing continuing education or research conferences for health professionals, curricula for health professions training programs, patient education materials, or clinical demonstration projects. Fellows are also encouraged to take leadership roles by developing didactic projects and disseminating educational materials through a variety of efforts (e.g., planning regional invitational meetings, developing a training website) in order to educate health professionals and advance psychosocial rehabilitation training and collaboration.

Didactic Training

Each PSR fellowship program tailors its fellowship and discipline-specific seminars. The seminars include, but are not limited to, case presentations, workshops, coursework, conferences, and supervision. The Hub Site coordinates a monthly seminar series that offers a unified, comprehensive education and training for fellows across the six PSR Fellowship sites. All PSR fellows are invited to attend the didactic seminar series as it is an opportunity to learn more about psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery. It is also an opportunity to potentially collaborate with other PSR sites on various psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery projects.

Additional Training Opportunities

The Fellows are encouraged to attend the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) Conference or an alternative conference for additional psychosocial rehabilitation training and are encouraged to submit their "Education Dissemination Projects" for conference presentation consideration as part of their dissemination efforts. At the end of their fellowship year, fellows are eligible to apply for PRA certification as Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioners.

Fellowship Sites

The VISN 5 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center at Baltimore, Maryland, is the Administrative Hub Site for the VA Interprofessional Fellowship Program in Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery. The Hub Site was established in the summer of 2007 to help coordinate education, training and recruitment efforts across the funded PSR fellowship programs and serves as official liaison between sites and the Office of Mental Health Services and the Office of Academic Affiliations.

Six VA healthcare sites participate in the PSR fellowship program:

Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System at Little Rock, Arkansas

VA Palo Alto Healthcare System at Palo Alto, California

VA San Diego Healthcare System at San Diego, California

VA Connecticut Healthcare System at West Haven, Connecticut

Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital at Bedford, Massachusetts

Durham VA Medical Center at Durham, North Carolina

Fellowship Requirements

Fellows must be U.S. citizens and must be graduates of academic programs that are accredited by the nationally recognized accrediting bodies for the profession. All fellows must possess a master's level degree or above in their respective disciplines, which is a basic requirement to participate in the fellowship program. Applications are invited from graduates of doctoral programs in clinical or counseling psychology, psychiatry residency programs, master's or doctoral programs in social work, and master's or doctoral programs in mental health nursing, master's programs and doctoral programs in occupational therapy, masters of divinity programs with 4 units of accredited clinical pastoral education and master's programs in vocational rehabilitation.

The Fellowship Program is full time for psychology, psychiatry, vocational rehabilitation occupational therapy, clinical pastoral education, social work and nursing fellows. Stipends are competitive and are based on location and discipline. Full time fellows are eligible for health and life insurance benefits. All fellows earn annual and sick leave and are entitled to all Federal holidays.

Application

Applications will be accepted and reviewed at each site until all positions are filled. Application requirements and specifications may differ across sites, so please contact the Fellowship Director at each site of interest.

Bedford, MA

Co-Directors: Brian J. Stevenson, Ph.D., Psychology Service (116B)

Elizabeth Naughton, LICSW, Social Work Service (122)

200 Springs Road

Bedford, MA 01730

Brian.Stevenson4@va.gov or (781) 687-3319

Elizabeth.Naughton@va.gov or (781) 687-2149

http://www.psychologytraining.va.gov/bedford/

Durham, NC

Co-Directors: J. Murray McNiel, Ph.D.

Julie C. McCormick, LCSW, CPRP

Hillandale II VA Clinic

1830 Hillandale Road

Durham, NC 27705

Jesse.Mcniel@va.gov or (919) 286-0411, Ext. 177777

Julie.McCormick@va.gov or (919) 286-0411, Ext. 175111

https://www.durham.va.gov/services/psychology-postdoc.asp

Little Rock, AR

Director of Post Doctoral Training: Courtney Crutchfield, Ph.D.

2200 Fort Roots Drive (116/NLR)

North Little Rock, AR 72114

Applications to: Courtney.Crutchfield@va.gov or (501) 257-3471

Inquiries to: Nathaniel Cooney, PhD or (501) 257-3455

http://www.littlerock.va.gov/careers/psychology/fellowship/Psychology_Fellowship_Prgram.asp

Palo Alto, CA

Director: Stephen T. Black, Ph.D.

Psychology Service

VA Palo Alto Health Care System

3801 Miranda Ave (116B)

Palo Alto, CA 94304

Stephen.Black2@va.gov or (650) 493-5000, Ext. 67556

http://www.paloalto.va.gov/services/mental/PsychologyTraining.asp

San Diego, CA

Director: Dimitri Perivoliotis, Ph.D.

VA San Diego Healthcare System (116B)

3350 La Jolla Village Drive

San Diego, CA 92161

dperivol@ucsd.edu (preferred) or (858) 552-8585, Ext. 2412

http://www.sandiego.va.gov/careers/psychology_training.asp

West Haven, CT

Director: Interprofessional Fellowship: Anne Klee, Ph.D., CPRP

Errera Community Care Center

114 Boston Post Road, 2nd Floor

West Haven, CT 06516

Anne.Klee@va.gov or (203) 479-8035

Director of Psychology Training: Joshua Bullock, Ph.D.

Joshua.Bullock@va.gov or 203-516-8013

http://www.connecticut.va.gov/careers/psychologytraining.asp

Psychiatry Fellowship:

https://medicine.yale.edu/psychiatry/education/clinfell/psychosocial.aspx

Director of Social Work Training: Michele Roberts

Michele.roberts2@va.gov 203-479-8004

Director of Occupational Therapy Training: Mary Sperrazza, OTR/L

Mary.sperrazza@va.gov 203-479-8025

Director of Chaplaincy Training: James Cooke, S.S.T.,BCC

James.cooke2@va.gov 203-932-5711x2422

https://www.connecticut.va.gov/PSR_Interprofessional_Fellowship.asp



For other information, please contact:

Richard Goldberg, Ph.D.

Director of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Fellowship Hub Site

VA Maryland Health Care System

10 N. Greene St.

Attn: MIRECC, Annex Bldg., 7th Floor

Baltimore, MD 21201

Richard.Goldberg@va.gov or (410) 637-1851

Ralf Schneider, MA, CPRP

Psychosocial Rehabilitation Fellowship Hub Site Coordinator

Ralf.schneider@va.gov or (410) 637-1874

http://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn5/training/interprofessional_fellowship_program.asp