WELL Project

Chatham University’s Counseling Psychology graduate programs received an HRSA-funded Behavioral Workforce Education and Training grant in the fall of 2017 for the Supporting Wellness: Expanding Psychology Training in Integrated Care Project, or the WELL Project. The project was completed in 2022.

We partnered with hospital and community sites offering integrated care to address the behavioral healthcare needs of vulnerable and medically underserved populations, specifically clients whose care is complex either because of psychosocial pressures, complex required medical care or both.

In addition to practicum training at these hospital and community sites, the WELL Project includes:

  • An enhanced Practicum course which offers 15 additional hours of training per semester to practicum students, covering topics such as integrated care models, trauma-informed care, suicide assessment and prevention, substance misuse assessment and intervention, health disparities and social determinants of health, and specific evidence-based interventions.
  • Funds for membership in the America Psychological Association (APA) and/or a division of APA
  • Funds to attend a conference or training
  • Mentoring and support for internship applications through Chatham’s Office of Career Development
  • Stipends during the training year, which must be the final year prior to pre-doctoral internship
  • A monthly process group to address issues related to professional burnout and professional development facilitated by psychologist who is not affiliated with Chatham

The hospital and community sites our advanced PsyD students have worked in include:

  • UPMC Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine’s Lawrenceville Transitional Care Clinic
  • UPMC Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine’s Gender & Sexual Development Program
  • UPMC Adolescent and Young serving youth at Shuman Detention Center
  • UPMC Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation Clinic
  • UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, inpatient and outpatient
  • UPMC Visceral Inflammation and Pain Center (now Gut-Brain Clinic)
  • UPMC Benedum Geriatric Center
  • UPMC Complex Care Clinic
  • Allegheny Health Network Forbes Residency Training Clinic
  • Allegheny Health Network Positive Care Clinic
  • Mercy Behavioral Health Community Services
  • West Penn Hospital 

WELL Project training events have included:

  • A Panel discussion about Models of Integrated Care with Elizabeth Cuevas, MD, Maggie Feinstein, LPC, Andrea Fox, MD, Ken Thompson, MD, Ana Radovic, MD & Deana Ekas, LCSW
  • A 3-part series discussing classes of medications with Dr. Mindy Hutchinson
  • A Suicide Prevention presentation with the American Foundation for Suicide Presentation
  • A “Walk Humbly; Healing People Not Patients” presentation about a biopsychosocial model of approaching integrated care by Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, MD
  • A presentation on Stigma and Substance Misuse by Ashley Potts, LSW
  • A viewing of the documentary Journey to Normal and panel discussion with the producer and veterans
  • “Healthcare Disparities with Clinical Implications Across the Health Sciences” lecture by Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, FACP, with a follow-up workshop
  • A Trans*Affirming Care presentation by Charlie E. A. Borowicz, MPH, MSW
  • “Shifting the Lens: Practical Applications of Trauma-Informed Care” - A general lecture about trauma informed care as well as a 2-part intensive workshop by Joseph R. Martin, MA & Colleen Davis-Maxwell, MSW, LSW
  • “The Role of the Imposter Phenomenon in Ethnic Minority Student Achievement and Mental Health” presentation by Kevin Cokley, PhD, along with a workshop for BIPOC students and a workshop for faculty.