Serving underserved children: Specialized training for psychologists

This presentation will describe a new graduate training program for advanced students in psychology, the Interdisciplinary Training Initiative for Underserved Children (ITIUC), a two-semester program developed at the Center on... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation will describe a new graduate training program for advanced students in psychology, the Interdisciplinary Training Initiative for Underserved Children (ITIUC), a two-semester program developed at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The goal of ITIUC is to increase the number of graduating psychologists who have the knowledge, skills, and competencies to provide clinical services to underserved children and their families. The ITIUC objectives are to 1) provide integrated discipline-specific and inter-professional training to psychology interns in behavioral health that emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach; 2) integrate primary care, behavioral health, public health, and social services to serve underserved and traumatized children; 3) provide experiential training in primary care settings for interns with underserved populations; 4) advance the leadership skills and professional development of psychology trainees; and 5) ensure that the trainees reach competency in the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively treat maltreated children and children exposed to trauma. The ITIUC is composed of two major components: a discipline-specific clinical component and an interdisciplinary component in which the trainees receive didactic experience with graduate students from medicine, law, social work, and related disciplines. A special emphasis of the ITIUC is on the current status of child maltreatment internationally – recognition, intervention, available services, and prevention. The ITIUC is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant D40HP26871 Graduate Psychology Education.