Associate Post Master’s Mental Health Fellowship – Vacaville

Between the two clinics, we serve approximately 150,000 Kaiser Permanente members including a significant portion of Medi-Cal patients. Solano County is extremely diverse in terms of socioeconomics and racial and ethnic identities, with large populations of Filipinx, Latinx, and African American clients who utilize our services.

The communities we serve include a large fraction of suburban commuters into the larger nearby Bay Area cities, alongside a large fraction of residents from smaller rural nearby towns. Because of this, diversity is a focus in our training, including a weekly Group Supervision, as well as of staff meetings and professional education. Staff clinicians and trainees are encouraged to develop specialized treatments for underserved and oppressed populations in our community (e.g., African-American Support Group, Women’s Empowerment Group, Support Groups for LGBT Young Adults, and Spanish Language Clinic).

Fellows attend multiple didactic trainings, including two hours per week of clinical and professional workshops coordinated by the regional Mental Health Training Program, Monthly EID Forum Speakers, and periodic workshops by national experts in evidence- based clinical interventions. Fellows also have access to the Mental Health Training Program’s Continuing Education Lecture Library, which includes presentations by renowned speakers such Kristen Neff on Self-Compassion, Bessel van der Kolk on Trauma and PTSD Relief, and Kenneth Hardy on Racially Sensitive Supervision.

Fellows participate fully in the ongoing staff development program of the clinics, including staff meetings, Feedback Informed Care and Case Consultation and ongoing professional education.

All fellows are provided with two hours of weekly individual supervision with a primary and secondary supervisor, and two additional hours of weekly group supervision.

The primary and secondary supervisor is responsible for supervising the direct delivery of clinical services. This supervisor takes the lead role in monitoring the fellow’s progress, providing feedback on strengths and areas in need of further development, ensuring effective and safe patient care, adequate documentation, and evaluating training schedules.

Group supervision includes opportunities for fellows to present and discuss cases. Fellows learn how to address treatment through a cultural framework including ethnicity, language, age, gender and sexual identity. Group supervision allows for vicarious learning, practice with professional public clinical presentations, and learning how to give and receive feedback.

Reflecting Kaiser Permanente’s core commitment to mental health and wellness in our communities, each trainee will spend at least 32 hours during their training year on a Community Partnership Project that focuses on improving mental health in the local community beyond our Kaiser Permanente members. Most recently our partnerships have been with Trinity Center, Dozier Libbey Medical High School, KP Launch Summer Internship. Other local opportunities available.

The goal of these projects is to provide outreach to underserved populations in the community to promote healthy behaviors. Training Objectives include developing acquaintance with the tenets of Community Psychology, as well as gaining experience in community outreach, and the development of partnerships within internal and external systems.

Fellows will have the opportunity to participate in the following rotations based on interest, training and availability:
• Eating Disorders Program
• Gender Care Program
• Hospital Based Consult/Liaison Services
• Adult Intensive Outpatient Program
• Trauma Treatment Track

Fellows will shadow and co-facilitate a variety of treatment groups offered in the Adult clinic, including:

• anxiety and depression management
• DBT
• treatment of bipolar disorders
• eating disorders
• trauma, including opportunities to learn and participate in CPT groups

All Fellows will have a core caseload of adult (age 18-80+) patients presenting with clinical symptoms that have a medical necessity for treatment. Among the most common conditions Fellows will be assigned to treat are mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and trauma and stressor related disorders.

Fellows will be expected to learn and utilize evidence-based psychological interventions that have been shown to effectively reduce psychiatric symptoms in a timely manner. These include such interventions as: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), The Unified Protocol (UP), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE)Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and others.

A full caseload for a Fellow will be 20 total patient care hours per week, comprising individual patients and group appointments in both the Adult and Child/Family Tracks. In general, Fellows can expect to have 2-3 Intakes, 1-2 groups and 14-16 return individual appointments per week.

Fellows will have the opportunity to participate in the following rotations based on interest, training, and availability:
• Eating Disorders Program
• Gender Care Program
• Hospital Based Consult/Liaison Services
• Teen Intensive Outpatient Program

Fellows will shadow and co-facilitate a variety of treatment groups in the Child/Family Track for preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school aged patients. as well as multifamily groups to address anxiety, depression, adjustments to change, eating disorders, and trauma.

All Fellows will have a core caseload of child and adolescent patients presenting with clinical symptoms that have a medical necessity for treatment. Among the most common conditions Fellows will be assigned to treat are mood disorders, anxiety disorders and trauma and stressor related disorders, behavior problems, and eating disorders.

Fellows will be expected to learn and utilize evidence-based psychological interventions that have been shown to effectively reduce psychiatric symptoms in a timely manner. These include such interventions as: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Behavioral Therapy; Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and others.

A full caseload for a Fellow will be 20 total patient care hours per week, comprising individual patients and group appointments in both the Adult and Child/Family Tracks. In general, Fellows can expect to have 2-3 Intakes, 1-2 groups and 14-16 return individual appointments per week