Behavioral Healthcare Internship
Thrive Behavioral Healthcare, a nonprofit mental health agency in Warwick, RI has an exciting new internship opportunity for 4th year undergraduate students who are majoring or minoring in Psychology, Sociology, Social Work, Health Studies, and Human Development Family Sciences.
Apply now for the Fall Semester. Internships will start in September and last until at least December. This internship is unpaid, however it will provide a broad experience for you to learn all about community mental health and severe and persistent mental illness. You may also apply for course credit through your college or university.
The Internship is a hybrid model where you will need to be onsite at Thrive for at least 4 hours every other week for an entire semester. The other hours can be done remotely to accommodate your class schedule and other college activities or work study.
You must commit to at least 8 hours a week (spread across 2-3 days/week) to this internship. Our main office is located in Warwick but we also have locations in Warren and Providence.
This internship experience will give you a comprehensive understanding for working in a CCBHC. CCBHC stands for certified community behavioral health clinic. Thrive is the Community Mental Health Center for Kent County. We serve youth through older adults who have mental health and/or substance abuse challenges.
Internship Tasks and Responsibilities
- Engage in a learning model to better understand clients who have severe and persistent mental illness by watching videos, reading articles and hands on 1:1 discussions with Thrive’s internship coordinator.
- Work onsite and alongside various Thrive staff to shadow and assist them in their hands on work to support client’s recoveries. This could include case managers, clinical assistants, benefits specialists, vocational specialists, and peer support staff as well as available licensed therapists.
- Call clients to conduct client interviews, enter data into a tracking system and review outcomes for quality improvement and grant reporting.
- Write educational materials to assist clients to be prepared for what therapy entails.
- Coordinate with community partners to see what special programs they have available to meet our clients’ social services needs for food, clothing, benefits, etc.
- Opportunities when available to shadow/assist staff who work in other departments that have a business function within our large agency. This could include fundraising, human resources, IT and or Quality depending on your schedule and interests. In addition to the clinical departments at Thrive, there is also a lot to learn about healthcare administration being that Thrive is a large agency/business.
This internship will directly prepare you to be comfortable in applying for a case manager or care coordinator position at Thrive upon receiving your Bachelor’s degree. It will teach you so much about community mental health and the careers available at Thrive for your future.
Specific things you will learn:
- What is Severe and Persistent Mental Illness?
- What is community mental health?
- Requirements for being a CCBHC
- Specific Client Diagnoses
- Navigating a client medical record
- Reading Progress Notes
- Trauma Informed Care for Non Clinical Staff Certification
- Person Centered Care (holistic care)
- Social Determinants of Health
- How a CCBHC partners with other community agencies
- Evidence Based Treatment Models for Care
- Intake and Assessment Tools
- Case Conferences
- Interviewing Clients and learning how to communicate with people who have SPMI
- Using Data to drive treatment outcomes
- Clients who are in crisis
- The work of SAMHSA
- The work of the National Council
And more
This internship is designed for students who want to gain self-confidence and more real world knowledge about working with clients in a community mental health/social service agency. It will help you prepare for your career after college. You will have full guidance and support 1:1 from our internship coordinator. An individual plan will be made for your learning style as we like to accommodate students who may have learning challenges. You must be very motivated to learn, driven to make a difference and comfortable putting yourself out there to experience a real job working in a complex agency. This is an opportunity to be out of the classroom and in a real professional work setting. You do not need to be 100% confident as this internship will help you gain this characteristic as you experience all it has to offer. You must be willing to learn and grow.
