Rehabilitation Services Clinical Training Program

Music therapy and drama therapy internships

The Rehabilitation Services Clinical Training Program at Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital (LPPH) is designed to teach interns in vivo the theory and methodology of providing group and individual treatment to adult patients in a short-term, acute-care psychiatric hospital setting. The clinical focus of the institute is to provide diagnostic and assessment services as well as crisis intervention, brief supportive therapy and follow-up referrals or services. Patients range in age from young adults to geriatric, presenting with a full gamut of psychiatric disorders. For music therapy interns, their training also includes a half-day per week working with a music therapist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, providing music therapy in groups and bedside with children suffering from acute medical conditions.

During the course of the internship, the intern is expected to learn how to provide appropriate rehabilitation services interventions and resources that are based on the specific clinical needs of each patient. This requires the intern to develop competency in accurately assessing a broad spectrum of psychopathologies and functional levels. Interns acquire skills in carefully blending a variety of creative arts therapy and verbal therapy techniques into the framework of their overall treatment program with the goal of assisting patients in specific treatment areas such as reality orientation, illness management, symptom awareness, distress tolerance skills, mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotion regulation skills, self-awareness, stress management, coping skills and leisure skills.

Specific intern responsibilities include:

• Completion of an orientation to LPPH
• Evaluation and treatment of the patients on the units assigned
• Preparation of written assessments, treatment plans, and progress reports on patients
• Active participation in clinical team meetings conducted as part of the unit’s teaching and treatment program
• Responsibility for planning and implementing the patient rehabilitation therapy program in the milieu, and its integration as a relevant part of the total unit program
  
   

The intern is expected to design, independently lead, and evaluate therapy sessions specific to their discipline in a variety of group and individual sessions, as assigned. In addition, the intern is assigned administrative responsibility for management of a part of the Rehabilitation Services facilities, equipment and supplies.

Interns receive a minimum of one hour per week formal face-to-face supervision. They are expected to prepare progress notes and relevant questions for supervision. Informal supervision takes place as interns work with their supervisors carrying out the duties of their assigned jobs.

Informal evaluation is a part of the ongoing supervisory process. Formal, written evaluations will be completed at designated intervals during training and will cover patient assessment, treatment planning, treatment implementation, communication skills, professional characteristics, and utilization of supervision and the use of their particular modality within the context of the patient treatment plans.

Beginning and ending dates are by arrangement; however, most interns begin in January or mid-to-late summer. Full-time interns are expected to work a 40-hour week and part-time interns are expected to work no less than 20 hours per week (this can some evening and/or weekend work). Depending on the discipline, most internships range in length from six months to one year.

There is no student stipend. There are no residential facilities for staff or students at Langley Porter, but rooms and apartments are available in the neighborhood (UCSF Campus Life Services maintains a directory). There are excellent public transportation options to other parts of San Francisco, as well as bus and rapid transit services providing access to other parts of the Bay Area.

Please note: Students entering the training program are expected to be mature and able to function independently. They are expected to have had pre-internship experience with adult psychiatric patients and a basic understanding of psychopathology. In addition, interns are expected to have sufficient skill to be able to implement a broad range of creative arts therapy and recreation therapy interventions specific to their discipline.

Interns are also required to obtain their own professional liability insurance prior to beginning their clinical training at LPPH.

About the Rehabilitation Services Program

Rehabilitation Services employs full-time drama, music and recreation therapists, as well as mental health counselors and expressive arts therapists as part of our per diem therapist pool. The staff consists of the Chief Supervisor of Rehabilitation Services, an administrative assistant and three therapists assigned to specific clinical services. Approximately three rehabilitation therapy trainees are in training throughout the course of the year.

The Rehabilitation Services staff work in the inpatient and partial hospitalization services of the hospital. Each service has a multidisciplinary team which includes psychiatrists, a social worker, a psychologist, registered nurses, psychiatric technicians, a pharmacist and one or two rehabilitation therapists. Each service conducts a unique program, which serves as the basis for clinical training and research. Interns may be assigned major and minor rotations through the inpatient and partial hospitalization services.

About the Adult Inpatient Program

The LPPH Adult Inpatient Program is a 21-bed locked unit, which provides short-term treatment and assessment services to late-adolescent, adult, and geriatric patients with a variety of acute disorders. It is oriented to intensive team effort to use the latest in psychobiological and psychotherapeutic approaches with patients and their families to assist patients to return to their pre-crisis level of functioning.

The program emphasizes assessment, evaluation and post-treatment planning, and uses a variety of short-term group and individual music, art, drama, dance therapy, verbal therapy, cognitive and task-oriented activity therapy.

About the Partial Hospitalization Program

The LPPH Adult Partial Hospitalization Program is an open day treatment facility which provides short-term treatment services to adult patients with a variety of chronic psychiatric disorders using Dialectical Behavioral Therapy as the primary treatment modality. The program is oriented to providing biopsychosocial structure during the daytime hours of 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., assessment, evaluation, skills training and post-treatment planning.

About UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital

(music therapy only)

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital provides music therapy in a medical setting for children in their inpatient and outpatient services. A music therapist internship supervisor offers the opportunity for music therapy interns to participate in a weekly training experience in this setting. This level of exposure and training in a medical music therapy setting will give interns a valuable enhancement of their skills as beginning music therapists.