Interns spend at least two days per week within a school setting conducting an array of school psychological services. This experience affords expertise in the delivery of psychological services within schools including prevention, consultation, assessment, and intervention activities to address student academic, behavioral, social, emotional, or mental health needs. Interns will collaborate with a wide array of school professionals, including speech-language pathologist, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and school social workers. Opportunities will be available to work in various special education settings, such as classrooms geared towards students with autism and classrooms serving students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. School-based services are supervised by site-specific school psychology supervisors with additional supervision from the Director of WOVSED or the Licensed Clinical Psychologist as needed.
Interns train two to three days per week at the Egyptian Public & Mental Health Department serving children and families within clinic, school, and community-based settings. Interns provide brief therapeutic interventions using evidence-based individual, family, and group treatments based on the needs of the community and interests of the intern. EHD’s Child & Adolescent Division provides several evidence-based practices, including High Fidelity Wraparound, Managing Adaptive Practices (MAP), Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in the Schools, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Triple P Parenting, The Incredible Years, and Botvin Life Skills. Interns will be exposed to any and all of these interventions as well as be trained and certified in Managing and Adapting Practices (MAP) or Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE). Depending on funding, the region often hosts certification trainings in one or more of the following evidence-based treatments:
- Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Trauma in the Schools (CBITS)
- Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)
The intern can expect to develop competence and skills in some or all of the following: individual, family, and group therapy; educational, mental health, and functional screening and assessment; IEP and treatment plan development; psychological consultation; team-based treatment services; prevention programming; and evaluation/research. Depending on individual interest, interns may also pursue additional training and experiential opportunities, including (but not limited too):
- substance use screening, assessment, and treatment
- crisis assessment and intervention
- juvenile justice population
- early childhood mental health
- community-based mental health with school partnership
- psychological evaluation
- systems consultation
- integrated behavioral and primary healthcare
- resource development
- grant writing
During the summer months, when school is not in session, interns will spend five days a week under the supervision of a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the EHD with exception of any activities WOVSED has occurring, such as professional development delivery, consultation, evaluations, etc. Activities at EHD will include facilitation of groups for youth and caregivers, individual and family sessions, conducting trainings and presentations for community outreach, conducting psychological evaluations, and/or participation in a summer treatment program.
Interns train under the direct supervision of a Licensed Clinical Psychologist dually credentialed as a school psychologist. Secondary supervision is provided by other psychologists, licensed mental health providers, and postdoctoral trainees.
On Fridays, interns participate in didactic trainings with their cohort, specific training within the internship site, clinical supervision, and other training activities. Mileage reimbursement between offices and to required activities is provided. Stipend: $23,000 with 15 holidays as well as vacation, sick, and personal time.
Population Information
Egyptian Health Department (EHD) and Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District (WOVSED) serves several communities within 5-12 counties in southeastern Illinois. The Illinois School Psychology Internship Consortium (ISPIC) interns serve rural communities in Saline, White, & Gallatin Counties primarily. These 3 communities consist of approximately 42,438 individuals with 9,181 under the age of 18 (US Census Bureau). According to the IL District Report Cards (2022), approximately 6,525 students are enrolled in the school districts. The overall racial configuration for children within the districts includes 94.19% White, 1.38% Black/African American, 4.49% multiple races, 0.5% Asian American, and 0.34% Native American/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. Children who identify as Hispanic/Latino represent 1.67% of the students. English is spoken as the primary language throughout the districts (ranging from 98.7% to 99.9%). Based on national data (Jones 2023), we estimate that 118 school-aged youth are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The youth within these districts have significant disadvantages compared to students throughout the state. Families living in low-income situations include 56.57% of the students within these districts and approximately 20.39% of children are living below the federal poverty level within the counties compared to 15.83% within the state (US Census Bureau). According to Illinois County Health Rankings, approximately 7% of the population still does not have insurance coverage as of 2022. Median household income for the counties is $47,630 compared to the state average of $72,563 (ACS, Census Bureau).
On their most recent Illinois Report Card, and in comparison, to state averages, the school districts within the served communities had a lower graduation rate (81%), higher student mobility rate (12%), higher chronic absenteeism (39%), higher chronic truancy (13.89%) and below-standard funding (67% of adequate funding). In addition, over half of all teachers in the school district (53.33%) were absent 10 days or more putting the students more academically at-risk due to instructor and lesson inconsistency (Illinois Report Card, 2022).
Mission Statements
https://egyptian.org/about-us/
Supervisor
Dr. Kathryn Bangs, NCSP, is a licensed psychologist and the school-based mental health program manager at Egyptian Health Department (EHD). In her role, she supervises the clinical staff and provides mental health services to children, adolescents, and families within the school setting. Dr. Bangs is originally from Rhode Island and received her Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of Georgia, her M.A. in Psychology in 2013, and her B.A. in Psychology and Dance in 2011. She completed her internship with the Illinois School Psychology Internship Consortium (ISPIC), specifically the EHD and Wabash Ohio Valley Special Education District site. Dr. Bangs has worked in a variety of settings, such as community mental health, schools, and primary care settings, focusing on building trauma-informed practices and services. She is an Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist, a Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) trainer, locally certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and a certified therapist and trainer in Managing Adaptive Practices (MAP). She is also working towards being a certified Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) therapist, and a Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) certification. Prior to coming to Illinois, Dr. Bangs worked in various school and clinical settings specializing in literacy, poverty, and autism. During her graduate studies, she researched morphological awareness development and assessment and intervention strategies.
