Primary Care Behavioral Health Services

This externship opportunity involves providing behavioral health services to children, adolescents, young adults and families receiving services at community-based primary care clinics through Whole Bear Care (WBC): Primary Care Behavioral Health. Currently, WBC embeds psychologists alongside pediatricians and clinical staff within several community primary care clinics across the District of Columbia. As such, psychologists ensure timely identification of mental health problems within one trusted setting. Psychologists are co-located in these integrated care clinics and work with patients exhibiting a range of externalizing and internalizing disorders. Psychologists prioritize multidisciplinary communication and collaboration with multi-disciplinary care teams as well as other key professionals internal and external to Children’s National (social workers, psychiatrists, medical specialists, school staff, community-based therapists).

The psychology externship with Whole Bear Care offers the opportunity to engage in the following experiences. We will work with externs to tailor the experience to their interests:

Consultation within primary care: The extern’s primary role is to provide consultation to patients and their primary care providers around a range of mental health issues. The extern will work closely with both the family and primary care provider during the triage and consultation process to ensure that issues are adequately addressed either within primary care or within the community.
Therapy within primary care: The extern will carry an ongoing caseload of 2-4 short- to medium-term therapy cases seen within the primary care clinic. Types of cases can be tailored to the extern’s interests. Some previous interests have included parent training, ADHD, anxiety and mood treatment, sleep interventions, and medication adherence.

Opportunities for bilingual (Spanish and English) applicants to complete their externship through our Latinx serving, bilingual clinic exist. Supervision with a bilingual, bicultural psychologist is a part of this experience. All Whole Bear Care externs are also given the opportunity to participate in a bi-monthly didactic series and a 9-week racial equity training.

Required extern experiences include:
- Outpatient behavioral health consultation with children, adolescent, young adults and families regarding general mental health concerns. Consultation includes assessment of presenting issue, referral to appropriate mental health services, and in-session intervention as warranted.
- Outpatient behavioral health consultation with primary care teams regarding general mental health concerns and developmental concerns about patients.
- Outpatient therapy with children, adolescent, young adults and families regarding general mental health concerns.
- Timely documentation of service provision in electronic medical record.
This is a fast-paced externship requiring previous direct clinical experience with children and adolescents. Preference will be given to advanced doctoral students (third year or higher) with a strong knowledge of psychopathology and appropriate interventions. Trainees interested in providing services in Spanish should be prepared to discuss their level of fluency with a psychologist at their interview.
Two to four externs will be recruited for this externship.
Please email a letter of interest, CV/resume and at least two letters of reference to:
Avanté Smack, Ph.D. | Email
Psychologist
Whole Bear Care Primary Care Behavioral Health Services
Interested applicants should also complete this survey one time, regardless of how many externships you are applying for.
- Children’s National Shaw Metro: 614 S St NW, Washington, DC
- Children’s National Shepherd Park: 7125 13th Pl NW, Washington, DC
- Children’s National THEARC: 1801 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, DC
- Children’s National Columbia Heights: 3336 14th St NW, Washington, DC
Sixteen hours per week from September to May (earlier start date negotiable). Preferably, the candidate would be available for orientation and training during August. Specific days on-site to be coordinated with supervising psychologist but clinical days are available Monday-Thursday.

Primary Care Behavioral Health Services

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