Hello, readers, and welcome to my Winter Term 2019 blog. For those of you who haven't seen the main page of this site, an introduction. My name is Ruth (she/her/hers) and I'm a current sophomore at Oberlin College. Oberlin College has a program called Winter Term, where during the month of January, students can pursue any independent project they want. Winter Term thus far has offered me opportunities for academic and career advancement. As a psychology and German double major, I appreciate the extra month to do things I wouldn't normally be able to do. Last year, I spent the time at home doing an independent German reading, in which I taught myself what was essentially a semester's worth of German in one month. This year, I find myself at home again to do a shadowing internship with the University of New Mexico Psychiatry Department's Division of Community Behavioral Health. As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in clinical psychology, this is a unique opportunity for me to see what this type of career could look like.
My month with the CHB Division will consist of two main shadowing experiences. My first is shadowing UNM Hospital's Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team. The ACT Team provides home visits to patients with severe mental illnesses. I will also be observing Telehealth sessions, therapy sessions conducted over vide-chat technology. Telehealth sessions provide mental health care to Native American populations in the rural/frontier areas of the state, and observing them also serves as an educational and training mechanism for people interested in mental/public health careers (for more info, here's a link to their website: https://psychiatry.unm.edu/divisions-centers/crcbh/telebehavioral/index.html).
In addition to these two components of my shadowing internship, I will be reading a developmental psychology textbook (Development Through the Lifespan by Laura Berk) to inform the shadowing I'm doing. And of course, I will be updating this blog as I go through this month to talk about my experiences. I know I'm going to learn a lot and I'm excited to embark on this project. Happy reading!