TRAINING

The Clinic provided students in the postgraduate Clinical and Health programs opportunities to conduct clinical assessments and provide psychotherapy to members of the community.

Students adopt a scientist-practitioner approach, and the predominant psychotherapeutic model used is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). This approach involves a number of key features:

1. Structured but collaborative therapy sessions
2. A focus on present identifiable problems
3. Individually tailored treatment plans based on theoretical understanding of the problem(s)
4. Continued assessment of the target problem(s) throughout the course of therapy
5. The use of scientifically-validated techniques
6. An emphasis on the development of self-management

Postgraduate students typically undertook a 32-day placement of one day per week, and carried a case load of three to four clients per placement day. Students' responsibilities included responding to enquiries from the public, conducting telephone intakes, organising sessions with clients, conducting clinical assessments, providing therapeutic interventions, liaising with other health professionals including providing reports, and preparing discharge summaries.

To assist their personal and professional development, students received one hour of individual and one hour of group supervision per placement day. Individual supervision involved case formulation and treatment planning, as well as treatment evaluation and modification. Group supervision included: case presentations and discussions, reviewing videotaped sessions, and discussions of clinical problems. Students' performance during the placement was evaluated by their clinical supervisor(s). To assist their personal and professional development, students received one hour of individual and one hour of group supervision per placement day. Individual supervision involved case formulation and treatment planning, as well as treatment evaluation and modification. Group supervision included: case presentations and discussions, reviewing videotaped sessions, and discussions of clinical problems. Students' performance during the placement was evaluated by their clinical supervisor(s).

Training in assessment involved the use of structured clinical interviews (SCID-I and SCID-II for the DSM-IV) as a mechanism for learning comprehensive assessment skills. As part of their placement, Interns are required to administer a number of assessment tools such as standardised measures of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Training in cognitive assessment involved the administration of one or more of the following scales: WAIS-IV, WISC-IV, WIAT-II, Neale Analysis of Reading Ability, WRAML-II. The administration was directly observed by Dr Karen Drysdale (cognitive assessment supervisor) who also provided guidance for scoring, interpretation and report writing.