VA-VU Psychology Internship

The agencies which are signatory to these By-Laws have joined together to create this Consortium as a vehicle for the provision of quality internship training in professional psychology. We are convinced that by working together, combining faculty and other resources, we can offer a richer internship experience, with a greater variety of clinical training opportunities, a deeper resource base, and exposure to a wider range of professional role models, than could any one agency working alone. The Consortium also allows the involvement in internship training of faculty and facilities which have unique and valuable training experiences to offer, but would not have the resources acting alone to support an internship program.

The agencies currently affiliated with the Consortium bring the following unique elements into the training program:

Psychological and Counseling Center:

individual and group therapy with a university undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and staff population
expertise in diversity, and multicultural issues
outreach into the university community
sports psychology
didactics and practical training in supervision
career, employment and psychological assessment opportunities

Adult Psychiatry:

psychotherapeutic interventions with a community mental health center population
training and supervision in cognitive-behavioral therapy and other evidence based treatment modalities
exposure to faculty with a strong research/academic orientation
training in traditional psychological assessment

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:

psychotherapeutic intervention and assessment with children, adolescents, and families
community outreach into the school system
exposure to faculty with a strong research/academic orientation

Tennessee Valley Healthcare System:

training in behavioral medicine assessment and intervention with a variety of target populations
exposure to an inpatient psychiatry setting
exposure to substance abuse treatment
training in neuropsychological assessment
psychotherapeutic intervention and assessment with a veteran population, and particularly with combat veterans and their unique issues

The Consortium agencies agree that the internship experience will be primarily practical and applied, but that practice must rest firmly on the accepted scientific principles of psychology. The Consortium internship is grounded in the scientist-practitioner model of the profession. Although the missions and the clinical populations served by the agencies differ, the agencies agree that interns should be broadly trained in the core professional skills of intervention, assessment, and consultation, and that this training should be sufficiently intensive that the Consortium’s graduates possess the clinical competencies needed to move with confidence into the professional arena. In addition to developing technical competence, another important function of internship training is to assist interns in developing the interpersonal skills and the personal and professional confidence needed to function comfortably and effectively in the professional role. The Consortium faculty also strives to encourage the multicultural awareness that will become increasingly necessary for effective professional function in our evolving society, and to foster the wider professional involvement (e.g., society/association membership, conference attendance) conducive to lifelong professional growth.

The Consortium exists to provide the administrative structure to coordinate and integrate training across the member agencies, to ensure that the training offered across the agencies is of high quality, to manage the program’s interaction with outside organizations, and to foster a sense of unity and positive professional interaction among faculty and members of the intern classes.

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GOVERNANCE

THE TRAINING COMMITTEE

FUNCTIONS:

1. The Training Committee will be the governing body of the Consortium internship program.

2. A Director and Associate Director will be selected from among the agency representatives on the Training committee to manage the administrative affairs of the Consortium internship in accordance with these by-laws and the decisions of the Training Committee. They will be elected by a majority vote of all the voting representatives and one of the two will be the representative from the agency supplying the largest proportion of internship stipends within the Consortium. The Training Committee may decide by majority vote of the total membership to remove the Director or the Associate Director.

3. A majority vote of the total membership of the Training Committee is required to effect a change in these by-laws.

MEMBERSHIP:

1. Each agency which funds at least one internship stipend will have one representative on the Training committee. A member agency which does not fund an internship stipend for two consecutive years will lose its voting privileges after the end of the first year. These will be reinstated upon its refunding such a stipend.

2. Each agency, through its representative, will have one vote. The representative is expected to consult and confer with his/her agency colleagues and fairly represent their views.

3. Interns will elect one of their number to be a non-voting representative on the Training Committee.

MEETINGS:

1. Training committee meetings will be held at least seven times a year. Meetings will be open to all supervising psychologists from the agencies participating in the Consortium and all interns currently training in the Consortium. No interns, including the intern representative, may be present when the performance of individual interns is being reviewed.

2. The Director will be responsible for notifying Agency Representatives of upcoming meetings. Special meetings may be initiated by any member of the Training Committee and should be coordinated through the Director.

3. A quorum of at least two-thirds of the agency representatives must be present for the Training Committee to conduct business. Decisions will be made in the form of a motion, discussion and voting process. Routine matters will be decided by a majority vote of the Training Committee members present except where otherwise specified in these by-laws.

4. Minutes of meetings are made available to professional staff of participating agencies and Consortium interns.

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AFFILIATION OF ADDITIONAL AGENCIES WITH THE CONSORTIUM

1. Any agency seeking affiliation with the Consortium must be willing to contribute its share of administrative funds to the Consortium, as well as offer a stipend at a nationally competitive level. If the agency is willing to meet these conditions, a written request for affiliation should be submitted to the Training Committee.

2. If the Training Committee, by majority vote, expresses interest in exploring the possibility of affiliation, the applying agency will be requested to submit written materials supporting its application. These will include information about the training experiences available at the agency, the faculty who would be involved in training, the source of the funding necessary to support internship training, and the administrative support for the internship within the agency.

3. When these materials have been reviewed, the Training Committee will arrange a site visit to be performed by at least two representatives on the Training Committee. The site visitors will submit a report to the Training Committee.

4. After the report has been reviewed, the Training Committee will decide whether the applying agency will be affiliated with the Consortium on a probationary status as defined below. Agreement for such affiliation will require a unanimous vote of the Training committee representatives present.

5. Probationary affiliation with the Consortium will extend for a period of two years. A probationary member of the Consortium will send a representative to the Training Committee meetings. This representative will be non-voting for the first year and may vote in the second year.

6. Toward the end of the probationary period, the Training Committee will appoint a sub-committee of at least two representatives to prepare a report on the probationary affiliation, to be submitted to the Training Committee. This report will include such information as student evaluations of training at the applying agency, the agency's contributions to the Consortium, stability of training staff and funding, difficulties encountered during the probationary period, etc.

7. After the above report is reviewed, the issue of affiliation will again come before the Training Committee. The committee may decide to admit the applying agency to full membership in the Consortium, to extend the probationary period for no more than one additional year, or to terminate affiliation. The decision to admit the applying agency to full membership will require a unanimous vote of the member agencies.

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TERMINATION OF AGENCY AFFILIATION

WITH THE CONSORTIUM

1. Any agency may voluntarily terminate its affiliation with the Consortium by informing the Training Committee in writing, as far in advance as possible, of its intention to do so. Any agency initiating voluntary termination must honor any training or financial commitments previously made to individual interns.

2. The Training Committee may, by majority vote of the total membership, terminate the affiliation of any agency with the Consortium.

3. Grounds for termination include, but are not limited to, the following situations, the occurrence of which is determined by the judgement of a majority of the membership of the Training Committee.

Failure to provide adequate supervision for interns.
Violation of commonly accepted professional norms.
Failure to fulfill professional responsibilities to agency clients, interns, or the consortium.
Failure to pay the Consortium administrative fee.

4. The Training Committee shall attempt to resolve problems arising with member agencies by other means prior to initiating termination procedures. The agency in question shall receive a formal warning from the Training Committee in which the problem and the potential consequence of termination are clearly stated. This warning shall be issued at least two months before the meeting of the Training Committee in which termination is considered.

5. The interests of any interns currently in training or accepted for a position in the agency to be terminated will be given due consideration by the Training Committee during the termination procedure. The Committee will make every effort to minimize the negative impact on any interns involved.

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INTEGRATION OF CONSORTIUM AGENCIES

OVERALL STRUCTURE:

1. Each Consortium intern will be accepted, on Uniform Notification Day, into a primary placement with a specific consortium agency. The majority of an intern’s clinical training will take place within this agency.

2. The primary placement agency is responsible for the intern’s stipend, computer access and parking arrangements, and may choose to provide other benefits.

3. Each Consortium intern will be assigned a secondary placement, by the process outlined below, within 30 days of the start of the internship.

SECONDARY PLACEMENT:

1. Each intern must receive training for the equivalent of at least one day per week at a site other than his/her primary placement.

2. Interns are expected to select a secondary placement that complements the training opportunities available at the primary placement, broadens the overall training experience, and provides experiences congruent with the intern’s needs/objectives for professional development.

3. To aid in the secondary placement selection process a faculty member at the intern’s primary placement, in conjunction with the intern, will complete a needs assessment, reviewing the intern’s overall training background in relation to the intern’s and the Consortium’s training objectives.

4. Interns will receive an orientation to secondary placement opportunities throughout the Consortium on Consortium Orientation Day. On that same day, the Consortium Director will review with the intern class the Consortium’s expectations regarding secondary placement selection. The Training Directors at the interns' primary placements, and the Consortium Director (on an as needed basis), will provide individual guidance to interns during the secondary placement selection process using information gathered through the needs assessment.

5. After narrowing their secondary placement choices, interns are expected to contact the appropriate staff at the sites in which they remain interested, for the purposes of exploring available experiences in more detail and working out the practical arrangements for a placement.

6. Interns will submit a hierarchically ranked list of their secondary placement preferences to the Director by a date to be designated each year by the Consortium Training Committee.

7. Interns are expected to perform their secondary placement at one of the Consortium agencies. Interns interested in secondary training sites outside of the Consortium will need the approval of the Training Committee. The intern must present a written proposal/rationale to the Training Committee. Such a proposal will be evaluated in relation to the intern’s overall training needs and goals as well as the needs and goals of the Consortium agencies. Proposals will not be approved if a similar training experience is available within the consortium and depending upon the requirements of the Consortium agencies, may not be approved even when the experience is not available within the Consortium.

8. No Consortium agency acting alone will make any formal or informal commitments to interns regarding secondary placement. Final determination of secondary placement assignments will be made by the Director and the Training Committee after a review of the expressed intern preferences, needs assessments, and the available training opportunities and needs of the Consortium agencies. In order to allow interns a reasonable opportunity to talk with faculty and explore secondary placement possibilities the Consortium Training Committee meeting to finalize secondary placement assignments will not be held until at least ten (10) days after Consortium Orientation Day. The precise date will be set each year.

TRAINING ACTIVITIES:

1. Colloquia, case conferences, workshops, and other training programs sponsored by a member agency will be open to interns and supervisors of all Consortium agencies.

2. One half-day of training activities for all Consortium interns during which Consortium faculty, interns, and invited guests will give didactic presentations, lead discussions on issues of importance in the Mental Health field, or take part in clinically focused case conferences, will be scheduled weekly.

3. Additional regularly occurring or episodic training programs may be scheduled at the discretion of the Training Committee and/or the Director

4. Intern participation in designated Consortium training activities will be mandatory.

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TRAINING OBJECTIVES

1. All successful Consortium interns will demonstrate a level of skill sufficient to meet the criterion “ready for independent practice at the entry level “in the core professional skills of intervention, assessment, and consultation, as determined by supervisor ratings.

2. All successful Consortium interns will demonstrate a thorough knowledge and application in practice sufficient to indicate readiness for independent practice at the entry level in the following areas: professional ethics, the relationship between science and practice in psychology, and issues of human diversity as they relate to science and practice in psychology.

3. In addition the Consortium will endeavor to:

Promote the development of sound clinical judgement.
Train interns to function effectively in a multi-disciplinary professional environment.
Teach responsible client/patient management.
Assist interns in gaining the professional competence and self-confidence to function as autonomous professionals after completion of the internship.
Promote self-awareness and self-management to enhance effectiveness.

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ADMISSIONS/SELECTION

1. The entire application and selection process will be coordinated by the Director and Associate Director.

2. All procedures will be in accordance with those established by APA and APPIC.

3. All decisions of acceptance of Consortium interns will be coordinated; no agency will be permitted to make unilateral decisions of acceptance.

4. Stipends offered are determined by each individual agency. The governing body of the consortium will attempt to keep stipends reasonably uniform across agencies.

5. The total number of interns accepted shall not exceed the number for which quality supervision can be provided by the professional staff of the Consortium.

6. The deadline for applications to the Consortium internship shall be at least 30 days prior to the APPIC recommended date for extending interview offers to applicants. A specific date will be set yearly.

7. Each year the Training Committee will structure a schedule for the selection process. This schedule will include, for the convenience of applicants, coordinated sets of interview dates.

8. After the application deadline, at least one representative from each agency will evaluate all completed applications from applicants indicating an interest in that agency, rating them as to acceptability to his/her agency. The Consortium Director will determine that each applicant is evaluated as to acceptability to the Consortium as a whole.

9. Those applications rated as acceptable to each agency will be further reviewed and evaluated by the staff involved in training at that agency. Decisions regarding how many and which applicants to interview will be made by the individual agency.

10. Each agency will submit to the Director or Associate Director a rank ordering of the applicants judged acceptable to that agency in advance of the APPIC deadline.

11. Using these rankings, the Director and/or Associate Director will determine the rank ordering of applicants for all divided positions and will resolve any conflicts among agencies.

12. The Director and Associate Director, in collaboration with the Training Committee will finalize the Consortium's hierarchical rankings of applicants and submit them in a timely fashion to the agency overseeing the matching process.

13. The Consortium will send a letter of acceptance to all applicants accepted into the Consortium program.

14. Each Consortium agency will send a follow-up letter to the intern(s) it has accepted for primary placement specifying starting date, salary, and other information peculiar to the individual site.

15. The Consortium will endeavor to fill the majority of its internship positions with applicants from doctoral clinical, counseling, or school programs which are APA approved. The Consortium will also seek ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity within each intern class.

16. Each individual agency has the right to maintain admission criteria that are unique to that site (e.g., U.S. citizenship for VA positions) in making primary placement acceptance decisions.

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TRAINING RESOURCES

1. Secretarial assistance as needed, supplies, office space, access to computers, library facilities, and other Consortium resources will be made available to each intern as a part of the training experience. The principal agency to which he/she is assigned will assume responsibility for these matters.

2. Agencies will share administrative costs and other expenses related to program maintenance.

3. The agency which houses the administrative functions of the Consortium may contribute staff time, materials, etc., in lieu of the administrative fee with the consent of the Training committee.

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EVALUATION PROCESS

1. Each supervisor will provide a written evaluation of the interns with whom he/she works at the beginning of the training year (Needs Assessment) and a minimum of three times thereafter. These evaluations will be reviewed with the intern before being sent to the Consortium Director.

2. A mid-year and end-of-year letter of evaluation will be sent by the Director on behalf of the Training Committee to each intern's academic training director. The intern will be provided with a copy of these letters.

3. Each intern will provide a written evaluation of his/her supervisor and training sites to the Director three times a year.

4. It is the responsibility of the Consortium faculty to identify as early as possible during the training year any intern exhibiting serious problems or deficiencies. Feedback should be given in a timely manner to the intern. If the problem is of such severity as to call into question the intern's successful completion of the program, the Training Committee will be informed, and a written plan developed, in collaboration with the intern, to attempt to remedy the deficiencies.

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BENEFITS AND LEAVE

1. A minimum of ten (10) days vacation time will be provided each intern. The scheduling of this time will be negotiated with the agencies to which the intern is assigned. Whenever possible these days should be divided proportionally among the intern’s placements and rotations within placements so that no single training experience is disproportionately affected.

2. A minimum of ten (10) days sick leave will be available to each Consortium intern during the training year. This leave must be reserved for illness or doctor’s appointments, and is not to be used as additional vacation or professional leave. If, due to unavoidable circumstances, this amount is exceeded, the impact of the absence on the intern's training experience will be evaluated and the period of the internship extended, if necessary.

3. Each agency will assume responsibility for intern malpractice insurance and other liability coverage while the intern is performing functions within the confines of and/or under the auspices of the agency.

4. Each intern may have a minimum of seven professional days for workshop attendance, professional meetings, dissertation research or meetings, etc. Use of this time must be negotiated with and approved by the agencies within which the intern is training. These days should be divided proportionally among the intern's placements and rotations within a placement setting. The availability of any additional time for professional use will be at the discretion of the intern's supervisor and/or agency placement.

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SUPERVISION

1. Each intern will receive a total of at least four (4) hours of supervision per week. This will include a minimum two hours of scheduled individual supervision with a psychologist licensed as a Health Service Provider. Group supervision and supervision on an as needed basis may provide the additional two hours.

2. A minimum of three quarters of each intern's supervision must be with a psychologist licensed as a health service provider.

3. Faculty who serve as principal supervisors at any site and provide individual supervision for interns must be psychologists who are appropriately licensed. They must also be faculty at one of the training sites in the consortium which supports an intern and/or be clinically and administratively supervised through one of the agencies signatory to these by-laws.

4. Supervisors are expected to be knowledgeable of the scientific base of psychological practice and to remain knowledgeable of relevant scientific developments. This scientific knowledge base will be incorporated into the process of clinical supervision.

5. Interns will receive regular and timely feedback from their supervisors regarding the quality of their performance in the program.

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GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES

1. It is the intent of the consortium to be receptive to interns' expression of problems encountered during the internship and to make reasonable and timely efforts to resolve the causes of interns' dissatisfaction.

2. Faculty are expected to be candid and to act in good faith in dealing with problems and dissatisfaction expressed by interns. No faculty member will interfere with an intern's right to express or file a grievance. Interns are assured freedom from restraint, discrimination, or reprisal in exercising that right.

3. Unless an intern has grave reservations about expressing dissatisfaction to his/her immediate supervisors, any problem or dissatisfaction should initially be addressed on the first relevant level, e.g., to the supervisors or the agency directly involved.

4. If a satisfactory resolution cannot be achieved on that level the issues should be taken to the Training Committee representative for the involved agency (assuming that was not done as part of step #3).

5. At any stage of the process interns may consult formally or informally with the Consortium Director, APA, APPIC, their graduate program or legal counsel about their problems, dissatisfactions, or grievances.

6. If resolution cannot be achieved on the agency level with the informal involvement of the Consortium Director, the intern may file a written grievance with the Consortium Director.

7. Upon receipt of the written grievance the Consortium Director or his designee will convene a Grievance Committee consisting of the Consortium Director or designee and two other Training Committee members, none of whom shall be from either of the intern's placements.

8. The Grievance Committee will resolve the grievance if possible. If not the committee may take any or a combination of the following actions:

Refer the grievance to the next scheduled Training Committee meeting;
Call a special Training Committee meeting to consider the grievance;
Consult with legal counsel;
Consult with other professional organizations (eg., APA, APPIC);
Advise the Training Committee on particular areas of concern in the management of the grievance.

9. The Grievance Committee will maintain minutes of all its meetings. The committee will also retain records of all testimony presented to it. At the Committee's discretion, this documentation may be in the form of written summaries, sworn testimony, or tape recordings.

10. The full Training Committee, upon request of the Grievance Committee, will review and evaluate grievances not resolved at any lower level. The decision of the full Training Committee will be determined by majority vote excluding the site which is involved in the grievance.

11. If the intern is not satisfied with the decision of the Training Committee, he/she may notify the graduate program, the American Psychological Association, the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers, or consult legal counsel.

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PROBATION AND TERMINATION

I. Overview

1. Communication in the Consortium between interns and supervisors regarding performance and professional issues will be frequent, open, and direct. Interns will receive ongoing, informal, verbal feedback from supervisors throughout the training experience, and formal, written evaluation and feedback at least three times a year as specified in the Evaluation Process section of these By-Laws.

2. Most intern problems will be managed within the supervisory relationship as an integral part of the training experience, through the utilization of strategies ranging from verbal feedback and encouragement to the construction of written remediation plans.

3. The procedures outlined here are to be utilized only when a problem with an intern has reached a level of severity sufficient, in the judgement of supervisors and the Consortium Training Committee, to place the intern’s successful completion of the internship at risk.

4. Significant misrepresentation of information or the omission of significant relevant information on the application to the Consortium in and of itself provides sufficient grounds for refusal of entry to or immediate termination (without a probationary period) from the Consortium’s internship training program. Any such misrepresentation or omission, upon its discovery by any member of the Consortium faculty, should be reported to the Consortium Training committee. The Training committee, at its next scheduled meeting or at a specially called meeting, will decide upon a cause of action. The Training committee reserves the right to terminate an intern for such misrepresentation at a later date if such action is not taken immediately.

II. Interns Who Have Been Accepted But Have Not Yet Begun the Program

1. On rare occasion information may become available, after an applicant has been accepted into the Consortium but before the beginning of the internship year, that raises serious questions about the prospective intern’s ability to function successfully as an intern. The Consortium will investigate such situations thoroughly. Serious concerns will be communicated to the applicant’s graduate program, and every effort made to enlist the program’s cooperation in gathering relevant information and structuring a resolution that respects the interests of the Consortium, the graduate program, and the prospective intern.

2. The Consortium reserves the right to delay or refuse entry into the program to applicants who have been formally accepted into the program, but who have, between the time of acceptance and the beginning of the internship year, either exhibited psychopathology sufficiently severe as to impair their professional functioning, exhibited grossly problematic interpersonal or professional behavior, been convicted of a felony, or who have misrepresented information on their application to the Consortium. Determinations regarding the severity of the above behaviors and the final action taken by the Consortium shall be decided by two-thirds vote of all Training Committee members.

3. Such action shall be taken only after consultation with the prospective intern's graduate program, and, if deemed necessary, with the appropriate offices of the American Psychological Association and/or the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers.

III. Interns Currently in the Program

1. Every effort will be made to identify serious problems in intern performance in a timely manner and to remedy these problems within the structure of the internship.

2. The Consortium recognizes that problems may arise which call into question an intern's ability or fitness to function in the profession of Psychology. Such problems may involve professional competence, professional ethics, interpersonal relationships in the professional setting, or in some cases, personal behavior outside of the work setting. Serious intern problems are present when there is manifest interference in professional functioning which is reflected in one or more of the following ways:

an inability and/or unwillingness to acquire and integrate professional standards into one's repertoire of professional behavior,

an inability to acquire professional skills in order to reach an acceptable level of competence, and/or

an inability to control personal stress, psychological dysfunctions, and/or excessive emotional reactions which interfere with professional functioning.

3. Ultimately, it becomes a matter of professional judgment as to when an intern’s behavior is seriously impaired rather than just problematic. However, problems typically become identified as impairments when they include one or more of the following characteristics:

the intern does not acknowledge, understand, or address the problem when it is identified,

the problem is not merely a reflection of a skill deficit, which can be rectified by academic or didactic training,

the quality of services delivered by the intern is sufficiently negatively affected,

the problem is not restricted to one area of professional functioning,

a disproportionate amount of attention by training personnel is required,

the trainee’s behavior does not change as a function of feedback, remediation efforts, and/or time,

the problematic behavior has potential for ethical or legal ramifications if not addressed,

the intern’s behavior negatively impacts the public view of the agency,

the problematic behavior negatively impacts the intern class, and

multiple and similar observations are made by more than one supervisor.

4. Through the ongoing evaluation and feedback process in supervision any intern exhibiting problematic behavior should be clearly and thoroughly informed of the supervisor’s concerns. If appropriate, remediation efforts should be attempted through the supervision process before probation is instituted. No intern should be surprised by a supervisor’s request to the Consortium Training Committee for probation.

5. Interns are informed initially through their reading of these by-laws, and again if difficulties begin to arise in their training program, that all formal communication regarding significant problems in their internship will be shared with their academic training program.

6. If efforts to remedy a serious intern problem through supervision have failed, yet the issue that brings into question the intern’s ability to successfully complete the training program is one that may potentially be remedied, the concerned supervisor/supervisors will formally request that the Consortium Training Committee place the intern on probation. The supervisors should present to the Committee a written Request for Probation, stating clearly and specifically the problems leading to the request and tentatively outlining a remediation plan. This request will be reviewed with the intern who will be given a copy of the document.

7. Once an intern has been identified as exhibiting problematic behavior sufficiently severe as to raise doubt as to the intern’s successful completion of the program, the Consortium Director or designee will communicate this information to the intern’s graduate program. The Request for Probation, and any further formal documentation of problems and/or remediation plans, will be made available to the program. Communication will be ongoing until a final resolution is reached and every effort will be made to enlist the program’s assistance in achieving a satisfactory resolution. The intern will be informed of this communication and may receive copies of any formal written communication between the Consortium and the graduate program.

8. Following the receipt of a Request for Probation, the Consortium Training Committee will meet in a timely fashion to consider the request. The concerned supervisor/supervisors will be present to explain the rationale for the request. If in disagreement with the rationale, the concerned intern may be present to present his/her position. The intern may be placed on probation by majority vote of the Committee.

9. Every probationary period will be individually structured to meet the needs of the situation at hand. A subcommittee composed of Consortium faculty appointed by the Training Committee will establish the length of the probationary period, set clearly defined performance or behavioral goals to be met by the end of the period and monitor the intern's progress toward meeting those goals. The rationale for probation and the remediation plan will be formulated into a formal, written, Notice of Probation, which will be provided to the intern.

10. At the end of the probationary period the subcommittee will report to the Training Committee on the intern's progress. The Training Committee may, by majority vote, either remove the intern from probation or extend the probationary period. A two-thirds vote would be required to terminate the intern from the program following the procedures outlined in section 11 below. The Training committee may require the intern to continue in training beyond the formal end of the internship if that time is required for the intern to meet clearly described, reasonable performance standards set for removal from probation. The implication of any such requirement for the intern’s anticipated completion date and stipend will be investigated and reported to the intern. Neither the Consortium nor the primary placement will be responsible for continuing the intern’s stipend into any extended internship interval, but may do so if feasible and desirable.

11. Prior to any formal consideration of a termination decision by the Consortium Training Committee, the Committee will be presented with a written Request for Termination, prepared by the involved supervisor/supervisors, the intern’s primary placement CTC representative, or the subcommittee appointed to monitor a period of probation. The Request for Termination will document clearly and specifically the rationale for the termination request. This Document will also be given to and reviewed with the involved intern, unless extraordinary circumstances make those actions inappropriate. The Training Committee will meet to consider the termination request in a timely manner but no sooner than five (5) working days after the Committee and the intern have received the Request for Termination. The involved intern will be invited to the meeting to present his/her position to the Committee. A decision to terminate will require a two-thirds vote of the Committee.

12. If an intern’s performance deficits, ethical transgressions, or psychological or behavioral problems are sufficiently severe, the intern may be terminated from the internship without a probationary period by a two-thirds vote of the Consortium Training Committee. The intern will receive a Request for Termination, as described above, and will have the opportunity to present his/her perspective on the case to the Training Committee prior to any vote. Should the Training Committee vote to terminate the intern, the intern will receive a written Notice of Termination, documenting the decision and its rationale. This document will also be provided to the intern’s graduate program.

13. Grounds for probation or termination include but are not limited to unsatisfactory professional performance, psychopathology so severe as to impede the performance of professional duties, violation of professional ethics, refusal or failure to meet the requirements of the program, conviction of a felony, misrepresentation on the application to the Consortium, and grossly problematic interpersonal or professional behavior.

14. Interns who receive a Notice of Probation or Notice of Termination or who otherwise disagree with any Training Committee decision regarding their status in the program, are entitled to appeal the Committee’s actions by initiating an appeal procedure. Within 5 working days of receipt of the notice or other decision, the intern must inform the Consortium Training Director in writing that he or she is appealing the Committee’s action. The intern then has 5 (five) additional days to provide the Consortium Training Director with information as to why the intern believes the Training Committee’s action is unwarranted, and, with the names of 2 (two) staff members to participate in the Review Panel. Failure to provide such information within the specified time will constitute a withdrawal of the appeal. Following receipt of the intern’s appeal, the following actions will be taken.

The Training Director will convene a Review Panel consisting of two staff members selected by the Director and two staff members selected by the intern. The intern retains the right to hear all facts and the opportunity to dispute or explain his or her behavior.

The Training Director will conduct and chair a review hearing in which the intern’s appeal is heard and the evidence presented. The Review Panel’s decisions will be made by majority vote with the Training Director voting in the case of a tie. Within 10 days of completion of the review hearing, the Review Panel will prepare a report on its decision(s) and recommendations(s) and will inform the intern of such. The Review Panel will then submit its report to the Consortium Director, the intern’s graduate program, and to the appropriate institutional authorities at the intern’s primary placement site.

IV. Relationship Between the Consortium and Member Institutions

1. In the ordinary course of events it is anticipated that any decision to terminate an intern will originate within the Consortium, according to the procedures outlined above. The decision will then be communicated to the Human Resources Department or its equivalent at the institution responsible for the intern’s primary placement. The training committee representative from that placement, the directly involved supervisors, and the Consortium Director if necessary, will be responsible for coordinating the Consortium’s decision with the host institution’s policies and procedures. Consultation with the responsible officials will be initiated as soon as the possibility of a termination decision arises.

2. The Consortium acknowledges that the initiation of action by the primary placement’s host institution may be justified under unusual circumstances. In such a situation the Consortium’s procedures will be initiated as soon as possible.

3. This document has been reviewed by legal representatives of all institutions involved in the training of Consortium interns. It is agreed that faculty and staff of these institutions, when engaged in activities on behalf of the Consortium, remain under the supervision and control of their respective institutions and are acting within the scope of employment of their respective institutions; and are therefore entitled to the same legal advice, representation, and protection they are due while engaged in any professional activities for their home institution.

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REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS

The following are the minimum requirements an applicant must fulfill to be considered for an internship in the Consortium:

1. The applicant must be actively enrolled in an academic program leading to a doctoral degree in professional psychology or have completed a doctoral degree in a non-professional field of psychology and be certified by an appropriate official as being enrolled in an organized re-specialization program requiring the completion of the equivalent of pre-internship training in professional psychology.

2. If in the United States, the academic program must be housed in a regionally accredited, degree-granting institution. If in Canada, the institution must be publicly recognized as a member in good standing by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

3. The applicant must have completed at least three years of graduate academic work in a program meeting the requirements described above.

4. The applicant must have completed at least one thousand (1000) hours of appropriately supervised practicum training. This training must include the face-to-face delivery of professional psychological services and must be of such a nature as to provide the applicant with the experience needed to have a reasonable opportunity to succeed in the Consortium placement for which the applicant is being considered.

5. The applicant must be certified by the program's Director of Clinical Training as being ready for internship.

6. Each individual agency has the right to maintain additional admission criteria that are unique to that site as might be required by the clinical or administrative constraints of the site.

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SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION

1. In order to successfully complete the Consortium's internship program, the intern must complete the equivalent of one (1) year of full-time training in a period of no less than twelve (12) months and no more than twenty four (24) months.

2. In order to successfully complete the program, an intern must demonstrate, through the mechanism of supervised clinical practice, an intermediate to advanced level of professional function in all of the professional competencies rated by the Consortium. In practice this will be indicated by supervisor ratings on the Final Intern Performance Evaluation Instrument. For successful completion of the program, all competencies must be rated at a skill level of “needs regular supervision” or higher, and at least 80% of all competencies must be rated as “needs occasional supervision” or” ready for autonomous practice.”

3. Interns must demonstrate, through the process of clinical supervision, an adequate understanding of professional ethics in application to practice and of the relationship between the science and practice of psychology.

4. Interns must demonstrate an understanding of issues of cultural and individual diversity as they relate to the science and practice of psychology.

5. The intern must attend at least 80% of the Consortium's scheduled didactic training activities throughout the year. The exact standard herein may be modified by majority vote of the Consortium Training Committee.

6. The intern must present at least three (3) clinical cases in case conference in the course of the training year.

7. The intern must present to the intern class during the seminar series at least one review of the current scientific and clinical literature on a clinical topic.

8. The intern must complete and/or participate in any other activities or assignments required as a part of the Consortium's educational program.

9. An internship in professional psychology is an organized and structured sequence of training experiences. The Consortium’s internship program is either successfully completed, or not successfully completed. No partial internship “credit” will be certified by the Consortium for any intern who voluntarily leaves or is terminated from the Consortium’s program.

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PROFESSIONAL/EMPLOYMENT

ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF THE INTERNSHIP SETTINGS

1. It is the position of the Consortium Training Committee (CTC) that each intern's overriding responsibility during the internship year is to his/her internship training, to the patients in his/her care, and to the institutions which are providing training. However, the Committee recognizes that for a variety of reasons interns may wish to become involved in work/professional activities outside of the formal internship setting during the internship year. Such extramural professional activity presents certain risks. These risks include, but are not limited to, abuse of the intern through dual relationships with internship supervisors, deterioration of learning and performance in the internship setting due to time conflicts, distraction, or fatigue on the part of the intern, liability risks to the Consortium or the Consortium's member institutions, and risks to the Consortium's reputation and/or standing in the community if an individual identified as a Consortium intern becomes involved in professionally inappropriate behavior in some other setting in the community. The remainder of this policy addresses these concerns and establishes a procedure for the approval of extramural professional activities by the CTC. Violation of this policy will constitute a violation of professional ethics as referred to in the policy, "Probation and Termination."

2. To avoid the potential for abuse inherent in dual relationships with an unequal power balance, no intern shall be employed or work on a voluntary basis for any professional who has supervisory responsibility for interns within the Consortium unless the activity is an integral part of a research program approved by the intern's academic department. The sole exception shall be voluntary collaboration on data analysis and writing that has the potential to lead to a scholarly publication for the intern and does not involve financial remuneration for either the intern or faculty member.

3. The Consortium and its member institutions assume absolutely no responsibility or liability for the professional or personal activities of an intern outside of the formal Consortium structure. Activities performed by interns outside of the formal Consortium structure are not covered by any professional liability insurance program, general liability insurance program, or worker's compensation program of the Consortium or any of its member institutions.

4. Interns who wish to engage in extramural clinical service delivery activities must obtain the approval of the Consortium by following the procedure outlined below:

Obtain from the Consortium Director a “Request to Engage in Extramural Clinical Activities” form. Complete this form and return it to the Consortium Director at least ten (10) days before the planned initiation of any extramural clinical activities.
To be considered by the Consortium, the request must first be approved by the intern’s primary placement. Such approval must be indicated by the signature on the form of that placement’s representative to the CTC.
The request will be brought by the Consortium Director to the attention of the CTC for discussion and approval/denial. Approval will be indicated by the Director’s signature on the form.
The Consortium reserves the right to deny any specific request that is deemed to be in conflict with Consortium’s mission, goals, or policies.
No extramural clinical activity may be initiated until the intern has received approval in writing from the CTC.

5. Interns who wish to engage in extramural research activities which involve the collection of data locally or active collaboration with local professionals must obtain the approval of the Consortium by following the procedures outlined below. This policy does not apply to such purely individual activities as writing, or the analysis of data previously collected, as long as such activities do not interfere with the responsibilities of the internship. The policy also does not apply to research activities which are conducted as an integral part of the internship program and approved by the appropriate member institution’s research review boards.

Obtain from the Consortium Director a Request to Engage in Extramural Research Activities form. Complete the form and return it to the Consortium Director at least ten (10) days before the planned initiation of any extramural research activities.
To be considered by the Consortium, the request must first be approved by the intern’s primary placement. Such approval must be indicated by the signature on the form of that placement’s representative to the CTC.
The request will be brought by the Consortium Director to the attention of the CTC for discussion and approval/denial. Approval will be indicated by the Director’s signature on the form.
The Consortium reserves the right to deny any specific request that is deemed to be in conflict with the Consortium’s mission, goals, or policies.
No extramural research activity may be undertaken until the intern has received approval in writing from the CTC.

6. Interns who wish to engage in non-psychological extramural employment must obtain a “Request to Engage in Non-Professional Extramural Employment” from the Consortium Director, complete the form, and follow the procedures outlined in 4 above.

Forms Page (Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Request to Engage in Non-Professional Extramural Employment

Request to Engage in Extramural Research Activity

Request to Engage in Extramural Clinical Activities

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