HEALTHCARE SYSTEM OVERVIEW

MISSION

We provide compassionate healthcare to veterans stressing customer satisfaction and doing the right thing the first time. Our patients benefit from state of the art healthcare enhanced through exemplary education and research in an environment which is continually improving.

VISION

Our healthcare system will be the provider and employer of choice, a center of excellence in patient care, education and research.

VALUES

Desirable qualities, characteristics and behaviors of importance and value are: trust, respect, commitment, compassion, and excellence.

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System is a two division, consolidated, tertiary care medical center containing medical, surgical, psychiatric, rehabilitation, and nursing home beds and a wide variety of outpatient specialty and primary care services. This VA Medical Center is one of the largest and busiest VA medical centers in the nation and contains a broad spectrum of inpatient and outpatient healthcare services ranging from disease prevention through primary care, to complex surgical procedures, to extended rehabilitative care. This VA was commended as being "Outstanding by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations** (JCAHO) during the most recent accreditation review. Affiliated with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences** (UAMS), this Medical Center is used as a training hospital for psychiatric, surgical, medical students and residents, as well as students from a diversity of Allied Health Professions training programs. Among the trainings offered at the CAVHS is the APA-approved Psychology Internship program. The medical center is located in Little Rock, Arkansas **, a metropolitan area of 583,845 people (median age: 34.7 years) and draws from a primary service area draws from 275,000 veterans. Additionally, the healthcare system serves many veterans from other VA's who are referred for specialty programs. Some dependents of veterans and military personnel are also served in CAVHS facilities.

PSYCHOLOGY TRAINING OVERVIEW

The CAVHS Psychology Training Program is built on a “Practitioner-Scholar” model of training. The program emphasizes in all aspects of its training that the best practice must be solidly based in science. The important hands-on experiential aspects of internship training are grounded in the scientific literature, and our interns are challenged to measure their assessment and intervention practices against an established knowledge base in a systematic way. All rotation supervisors emphasize the importance of consulting the scientific literature when working with a new patient population. This is accomplished through individual supervision and rotation specific reading assignments, as well as online availability of medical and psychological journals, textbooks and reference materials, accessible from each intern’s desktop.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of the CAVHS Psychology Training Program is to provide a generalist training experience. All interns, regardless of specialty interests, are expected to master the basic skills required of a beginning psychologist in areas of assessment, intervention, consultation and professional development. While these basic skills are expected of all interns, the program also values the beginning development of specialty interest in health psychology or neuropsychology for individuals interested in these areas.

AVAILABLE TRACKS

The Psychology Internship program contains three training tracks. These include General Psychology, Behavioral Health, and Neuropsychology. The General Track is focused on providing Interns with a well-rounded experience in a wide variety of clinical settings.  Although ample training will be provided in working with mental health patients (psychiatry, addictions, post traumatic stress disorder, vocational rehabilitation), the generalist intern will also be exposed to working with medical patients. The Behavioral Health Track is listed with Division 38 of the APA and meets the criteria for pre-doctoral training in Health Psychology. It provides a minimum of six months training in settings that serve primarily medical patients. Opportunities are also offered to work with psychiatric, substance abuse, vocational rehabilitation, and/or PTSD patients during the rest of year. The Neuropsychology Track is listed with Division 40 of the APA as meeting the criteria for pre-doctoral training in neuropsychology.  Interns spend six months working primarily with neuropsychology patients, at least some of which is supervised by a Board Certified (ABPP) neuropsychologist. The additional six months is spent with a variety of medical and psychiatric populations.

ACCREDITATION

This internship has held full individual accreditation by the American Psychological Association since 1979.  At our last site visit in 2003, we were awarded full re-accreditation for seven years, which is the maximum amount awarded by APA. Our next site visit is scheduled for 2010.