Fellowship Training in Health Service Psychology

Fellows are trained to Board Certification standards with a strong emphasis on clinical practice. Our graduates take up exciting positions throughout the country where their experience at Jackson Health System makes them exceptional leaders, with in-depth experience treating under-served populations in a publicly-funded hospital setting. We are one of only a handful of training institutions that have three APA-accredited specialties for fellowship training: 1) Clinical Neuropsychology, 2) Clinical Health Psychology, and 3) Clinical Child Psychology – Pediatric Psychology Service.

A premier training site for over 30 years, Jackson Health System is proud of its robust and highly prestigious APA-accredited programs for interns and fellows. In collaboration with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, our fellows train at Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital; Jackson Memorial Hospital; Holtz Women and Children’s Hospital; Ryder Trauma Center; the Miami Transplant Institute; and the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center. This allows for an extraordinary breadth of experiences from brain-cuttings in Neuropsychology, state-of-the-art treatments and equipment at the Rehabilitation Center, and close consultation with medical teams throughout the entire health system. Our training is rigorous and comprehensive with a strong commitment to science, ethics and diversity. Because we have three APA-accredited fellowship programs, graduates can apply for Board Certification the first year after graduation. Our graduates have done extremely well and have gone on to become leaders at universities, hospitals, and health organizations throughout the country. We are proud that, through their practice, teaching and supervision, they continue to spread the Jackson focus on providing the highest level of care for under-served populations.

The Department of Psychology of the Jackson Health System, in affiliation with the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine offers a Multi-Specialty Fellowship Training Program in Health Service Psychology that emphasizes advanced evidenced-based education and clinical training to prepare psychology fellows to work independently in their specialty areas. We are pleased to announce that the Clinical Health Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology- Pediatric Psychology Service and Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship programs have full accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) of the American Psychological Association (APA). *Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation: Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation; American Psychological Association; 750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002; Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: [email protected]; Web: accreditation.apa.org.

The Fellowship Training Program in Health Service Psychology is committed to promote expertise in cultural and individual diversity by recruiting faculty from different cultural backgrounds and by providing the fellows with theoretical instruction, experiential training, and exposure to populations that are diverse in areas of age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, national origin, language, level of education and social economic status. The fellowship training embraces an integrated approach (Scientist/Practitioner/Scholar) by encouraging learning, clinical practice, application of scholarly findings, and conduction of research. Training is developed to advance competencies by capitalizing on strengths and to successfully integrate the knowledge and skills in the specialty area in a systematic, hierarchical manner in order to become independent professionals in their particular area of specialization.

The program provides advanced clinical and didactic training and the opportunity for the fellows to become analytical and critical consumers of current theory and practice in the field. Specifically, this is accomplished through the constant interplay of clinical practices and scholarship activities that include grand rounds and seminars, as well as specific didactics and clinical interventions accordingly to the specific areas of specialty. Additionally, the program offers fellows a broad exposure to training across diverse cultural and ethnic populations, a spectrum from acute emergency to outpatient care and a body of faculty with different theoretical perspectives and expertise and the opportunity to work across interdisciplinary lines.

Finally, fellows may elect to participate in research opportunities within the JHS Department of Psychology. Fellows are always encouraged to develop and implement their own research designs or conduct collaborative research with other disciplines within the medical center community. The fellows who elect this rotation will be required to participate four hours per week, in addition to their clinical responsibilities, for a minimum of three months. Additional three-month rotations can be considered at the discretion of the research coordinator, principal investigator and clinical supervisor.

The training philosophy and goals of the Fellowship Training Program in the Department of Psychology are consistent with the philosophy, mission and goals of both Jackson Health System and the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, and are modelled on specialty specific board certification requirements.