The 2023-2024 year has some exciting changes for the NCAL Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Training Program (MHTP)! This year we are proud to host our largest training cohort ever with trainees spanning across 17 disciplines and tracks, working and learning at our 21 training sites across northern California. From an updated website, exciting new regional speakers, and additional positions to the regional training program, all these different areas of progress have the common goal of supporting and growing the training program to exceed the expectations and needs of our growing number of trainees.
New Website
One of the most exciting new projects this year has been the completion of the NCAL MHTP website. While redesigning the website, the MHTP project manager team kept their focus on making the website easier to navigate while also making the presentation of the various training programs and training sites more personable. The team strived for consistency across the site pages and followed the Thrive model by using pictures of the medical centers, training directors, and supervisors to help highlight what each site and program has to offer.
To see the new website, click here Home | Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Training Program Northern California
New Assessment Didactic Programming
This year, the training program has added region-wide assessment didactics for pediatric and adult focused doctoral trainees. The supplemental series occurs every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 3:00-4:00 PM on Teams, and has been developed and presented by Matthew Holland, PsyD (Clinical Supervisor) and Chelsea Vilinskas, PsyD (Pediatric Neuropsychologist). These supplemental assessment trainings focus on specific populations, such as ADHD or ASD, and cover psychological assessment topics that align with APA criteria for doctoral level trainees. Some of these topics include clinical interviewing, behavioral observations and mental status, a variety of specific assessment measures, test interpretation and scoring, psychological report writing, and feedback. The 2nd Tuesday of the month also includes a 30-minute interactive lab, with the opportunity for trainees to bring their own assessment questions to problem solve with the group and group leaders. With the dual goal of providing effective assessment services to the populations served in our medical centers and meeting the unique training needs of doctoral level trainees, these didactics are already off to a great start!
Trainee Pay Increase
This year the MHTP initiated a pay increase for Post Master’s Fellows and Doctoral Interns, bringing pay up to the market rate of that of trainees across Northern California.
New MHTP Staff
The regional team has hired three new Clinical Supervisors for 2023. The main purpose of this role is to support expansion of the training programs across the region. Clinical Supervisors provide supervision to trainees and engage in program and curriculum development for MHTP. The current clinical supervisors include Matthew Holland, PsyD, Patrizia Meunier, LCSW, and Aubyn Fulton, Ph.D. The team is very excited to welcome new additions Veronica Ochoa, LCSW, Ana Zdravkovic, PhD, and Adryan Caron, LMFT to the Clinical Supervisor role this fall! In addition to expanding the clinical supervisor team, MHTP has added data scientist, Galina Kovaleva, Ph.D., to the ranks. Dr. Kovaleva will assist the team with measuring operational outcomes and will provide data analytic support on MHTP research throughout the region.
Some other important updates for this year include: CAPIC approval for doctoral internships in the Kaiser Permanente Counseling Center, the addition of nationally recognized JEDI related speakers to the regional didactic program, the development of a child specialty training program in the Counseling Center (in addition to the already existing couples therapy and bilingual specialty trainings), and flexible start dates for the Post Master’s Fellowship to accommodate KP Counseling Center graduate cohorts.
Contributed by Chelsea Vilinskas. Psy.D.
