As a psychology intern assigned to work in a correctional facility, you may be tasked with helping to rehabilitate inmates and improve their mental health. If you are passionate about making a difference in the world, then this could be a rewarding and challenging career path for you.
What is a Correctional Facility Psychology Intern?
A correctional facility psychology intern is a student or recent graduate of a mental health program who works under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. Their role is to provide psychological services to incarcerated individuals in a corrections setting.
Correctional facility psychology interns assist in the development and implementation of behavioral and mental health programs that aim to promote inmate rehabilitation and reduce recidivism rates.
Duties and Responsibilities
While working as a correctional facility psychology intern, there are a variety of duties and responsibilities you can expect to take on:
Conducting Psychiatric Evaluations
One of the primary responsibilities of a correctional facility psychology intern involves conducting psychiatric evaluations of inmates, to identify any potential psychological disorders that may be present.
Treatment Planning
Based on the findings of the psychiatric evaluations, correctional facility psychology interns help to develop and implement treatment plans for individual inmates. The treatment plan might include a variety of interventions, including one-on-one counseling, group therapy, psychotropic medication, or a combination of these.
Data collection and Analysis
Correctional facility psychology interns must learn to collect data and analyze treatment outcomes, to ensure that therapy is effective and to make evidence-based modifications to the treatment plan.
Case Report and Management
Interns must keep case reports and manage a lot of paperwork that goes along with their duties. This takes a lot of time, and requires a great deal of attention to detail and organizational skills.
Education and Advocacy
Correctional facility psychology interns may participate in providing educational seminars to increase inmates’ knowledge of mental health issues. This, coupled with advocacy, can help create an environment supportive of mental well-being.
Skills necessary to be an effective Correctional Facility Psychology Intern
-
Strong Communication Skills: The ability to communicate clearly and compassionately with inmates is critical. Understanding the context of current convictions while maintaining professionalism without anxiety takes strong verbal and written communication skills.
-
Patience and Empathy: Mental health rehabilitation can be difficult work. Compassion and concern for inmates from a human rights perspective can be vital in communicating to inmates that there is help available and a chance to work on themselves.
-
Attention to Detail: To properly document the patients and effectively record data to help analyze clinical outcomes requires meticulous attention to detail.
-
Flexibility: Emotionally intense environments require psychology interns to stay calm and effective when working under pressure. Interns may also have to adapt to changing circumstances outside of the specific work they do with patients.
-
Strong Organizational Skills: Staying on top of patient documentation and keeping the workflow of communication with other key staff members is essential. Same goes with the paperwork necessary for individual patient records and group therapy sessions.
Benefits of Working as a Correctional Facility Psychology Intern
-
Experience in a Unique Setting: Interns will encounter fascinating clinical cases in a closed environment that requires professionalism, compassion and sensitivity to the various barriers to wellbeing that inmates endure.
-
Understanding of the Importance of Mental Health in Non-Traditional Settings: You will get to deepen your appreciation for the role psychological help can play for individuals living through difficult circumstances.
-
Professional Growth and Development: Interns will work with a diverse team of professionals with varied skillsets that create a unique environment for learning.
-
Employment Opportunities: As a correctional facility psychology intern, you will utilize the skills you’ve learned to respond to mental health needs in both your professional and personal life.
Challenges of Working as a Correctional Facility Psychology Intern
-
Safety Concerns: Working with inmates poses some risks if proper safety protocols are not observed.
-
Stressful Environment: It is essential to develop good self-care techniques when working in high stress situations. The intern must develop a plan to reduce stress and anxiety in time, and ground themselves to avoid disrupting their work.
-
Heavy Workload: Interns may be faced with heavy documentation tasks. Proper time management skills are necessary, and must be developed to create a workflow for interns to be successful in their work.
Final Thoughts
Working as a correctional facility psychology intern comes with unique challenges. However, the benefits, fulfilled by passion for the role, intellectual curiosity and overall drive makes the endeavor worthwhile. Enhancement of clinical skills, broad understanding of mental health, and work with a variety of people are part of the opportunity offered in the role. Contrarily, it is imperative to develop healthy coping mechanisms and stress management techniques, draw upon professional skills set and work with the team to deal with any sort of challenge while on the job. The insight, knowledge and growth that comes from this experience are truly unmatched by any other.
