Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) – Integrated Perinatal Mental Health – Advanced Practicum Position

Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) – Integrated Perinatal Mental Health – Advanced Practicum Position (Clinical or Counseling Psychology; PhD or PsyD Students) (1 Position):

We are excited to welcome an advanced practicum student in September 2024 for a (9 or 12-month) practicum placement with the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC), a specialized clinic within the OBGYN department at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and a core program of BMC’s Immigrant and Refugee Health Center (IRHC). The trainee will be working under the supervision of Dr. Resham Gellatly (she/her), a clinical psychologist with IRHC for a two-day (16-hour)/week placement. The preferred placement days are Wed/Thurs, with the Wednesday required.

While the RWHC serves birthing persons from around the world, currently the RWHC is serving a large influx of Haitian birthing persons. Our patients are incredibly resilient, often having recently arrived in the US following traumatic migration journeys undertaken during pregnancy.  When presenting for care at RWHC, patients are often actively navigating structural and social determinants of health such as housing placement in remote shelters, limited access to social supports, discrimination, lack of access to culturally appropriate food, acculturative stress, etc. The RWHC team is working hard to build care rooted in cultivating community and connection, with innovative models of group-based care for perinatal wellness (Centering Pregnancy) groups and case management groups already in place.  In order to optimize culturally and linguistically responsive clinical care we strongly encourage applications from trainees who speak Haitian Creole and have cultural knowledge of Haitian immigrant communities.

The clinical training experience consists of the following activities:

• Co-facilitate postpartum mental health support groups
• Complete “Warm Hand Offs” for RWHC OBGYN providers, including:
  • Providing rapid diagnostic evaluation and brief intervention during patients’ perinatal appointments
  • Providing behavioral health consultation to RWHC OBGYN providers
• Carry an individual caseload of short-term therapy patients in the perinatal period
• Carry 1-2 long-term therapy cases over the course of the training year
• Collaborate with other RWHC and IRHC team members including (OBGYN providers and nurses, other IRHC behavioral health providers, and the case management team — including social workers and community health workers)

Additional education opportunities included in this placement:

• Participation in monthly:  a) clinical group supervision and b) behavioral health trainee peer consultation support groups with the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (another program of the IRHC housed in the dept of psychiatry at BMC and specializing in caring for survivors of torture)
• Participation in interdisciplinary IRHC monthly team meetings
• Attending OBGYN Grand Rounds (Wednesday morning) and/or Psychiatry Grand Rounds (Thursdays at noon)
• Monthly clinical case consultation and clinical mentorship with a Haitian (and Kreyòl speaking) behavioral health clinician (for Haitian trainees)*

Application deadline: 1/2/24