Manitoba's Rural and Northern Community-Based Training Program for Psychology Interns and Residents.

Abstract

Interns live in and provide services to remote northern communities for half of the internship year and receive supervision from a psychologist in the community, supplemented by telehealth. The department also offers a full-year, postdoctoral rural residency. Ten interns and 4 residents have been trained so far. The community-based generalist training model and responses to the challenges, for both supervisors and trainees, of working in small underserved communities are described.

Perspectives on Clinical Psychology Training by Students at Australian Regional and Urban Universities

“…Others arise from regional universities, such as the problem‐based learning programme of Charles Sturt University (Kiernan, Murrell, & Relf, 2008). Publications from Manitoba (Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; McIlwraith et al., 2005), Nebraska (Hargrove, 1991; Hargrove & Howe, 1981), Mississippi (Wood, Miller, & Hargrove, 2005), Oregon (Campbell, Campbell, O'Friel, & Kennedy, 2009), Saskatchewan (Crossley, Morgan, Lanting, Dal Bellow‐Haas, & Kirk, 2008), and Hawai'i (Oliveira et al., 2006) illustrate both the common issues of factors related to geographic distance from metropolitan areas, but also unique characteristics caused by the particular rural environment can lead to notable differences across different rural geographies. The proportion of indigenous clients is often a factor in such differences, while in other cases, cultural differences among migrants to a community may become a particular issue in a different rural community.…”

“…Initiatives to improve psychological services in rural settings span didactic coursework in the USA (Harowski, Turner, LeVine, Leichter, & Schank, 2006), workshops in Australia (Hodgins, Murray, Donoghue, Judd, & Petts, 2004), and placements in rural areas of Australia and Canada (Bhar, Hodgins, & Eaton, 2006; McIlwraith, Dyck, Holms, Carlson, & Prober, 2005; Murray, Hodgins, Judd, Jackson, & Davis, 2002). Many issues described in the articles can be successfully imported as ideas worth pursuing in Australia's clinical psychology training programmes.…”

Enhancing access to psychologically informed mental health services in rural and northern communities.

“…Recognising the importance of this, the R&NPP has refined and continues to refine resident and faculty interview questions in an effort to tap into characteristics and preferences that contribute to a good match (McIlwraith et al, 2005).…”

Training clinical psychologists for rural and northern practice: Transforming challenge into opportunity

“…For the past several years a booth has been set up in the exhibit area of the CPA Annual Convention (also at the 2003 APA Convention in Toronto), where staff, interns, and residents from the R&NP are available to speak to students and professionals interested in the program. Numerous publications by staff and residents have also helped to increase the visibility of the program in both Canada and the United States (e.g., Barbopoulos & Clark 2003;Dyck, 2007;McIlwraith & Dyck, 2002;McIlwraith, Dyck, Holms, Carlson, & Prober, 2005). One of the current staff is also the founding Chair of the Rural and Northern Psychology Section in the CPA (www.cpa.ca/sections/ruralandnorthernpsychology/) and co-edits the section newsletter The View From Here: Perspectives in Rural and Northern Psychology.…”