Corrections_Today_November_December_2019

Correctional Health Perspectives

correctional psychology. All begin- nings may be difficult, but when we all moved forward together, we were confident the success of the psychol- ogy post-doctoral residency program would take care of itself. National recruitment The strong roster of psychol- ogy residents who have come to the department is a result of the selection process used by the program. The program is a registered member of the Association of Psychology Postdoc- toral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and is listed on the site’s Universal Postdoctoral Program Directory. This provides national recruiting for our program and ensures that eligible and interested candidates nation- wide will have an opportunity to explore the benefits of a psychology residency training program within a correctional setting. Brian Riedl, a regional director for the FDC, said, “The psychology residency program is a ‘win-win’ for the psychology residents and our agency. The pro- gram is also a great recruiting tool for the agency, as we have been able to benefit with many of our residents continuing to serve our institutions as permanent employees.” Our suc- cess in national recruitment has been evident in our results. In the past six years, applicants from California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Kansas and the Bahamas, to name a few, have all completed their formal

Psychology residents learn to lead a multidisciplinary treatment and services team. Thomas Culbreath/Florida Department of Corrections

firsthand, they are obviously the best of the best and provide an important service to our agency.” Former warden and FDC’s cur- rent director of Institutions, Hope Gartman, added, “The psychol- ogy residents provide invaluable assistance in the management/devel- opment of effective mental health services.” The psychology residency program rotates the psychology resi- dents to two different correctional institutions over the course of the year to ensure they are exposed to a wide array of patient needs and lev- els of care. They spend six months in one of the three outpatient units and the other six months is comprised of a rotation at one of the two inpatient

supervision and training as members of our psychology residency program.

Psychology residents Security staff has seen the benefits of the psychology residency, and leadership at the institutions where psychology residents train could not speak more highly of the program. Jeffrey Trovillion, a warden dur- ing the early development of the psychology internship and resi- dency programs, recalled, “It was an amazing experience, as a warden, to watch the evolution of our psychol- ogy residents from the beginning, as an outsider, to the end as a large part of the facility’s team. Having observed our psychology residents

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