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Psychology Educational Enhancement
The return of soldiers from current conflicts has led to national recognition of the importance of ready access to quality mental health care for all veterans. Simultaneously, there has been expansion of mental health services into programs such as Primary Care, Traumatic Brain Injury,
Polytrauma, and
Mental Health specialty programs. In response, the need for psychologists in VA has expanded dramatically; more than 800 have been hired in the last three years. The Office of Mental Health Services projects that VA will need to recruit about 600 psychologists per year for the next 3 years and 300 per year subsequently to meet anticipated needs.
The best resource for recruitment has been VA's own training programs - 73% of recent hires have had VA training in Psychology. With about 450 trainees completing our programs each year, we have a good resource for recruitment, but still insufficient numbers to fill all openings readily, particularly in more remote areas.
As a result, the Office of Academic Affiliations and the Office of Mental Health Services have partnered to increase the numbers of psychologists receiving training through VA programs by 159 each year, to start with the 2008-2009 training year. These positions include 61 Internship positions and 98 Postdoctoral Fellowship positions; they will bring the number of training positions to 620 annually. The recently awarded positions include four new Internship Training programs and 26 new Postdoctoral Fellowship programs. Thirty-one existing Internship programs and 17 existing Postdoctoral Fellowship programs were also awarded expansion positions.
The new Internship Programs are at these sites:
In addition, there are new Postdoctoral Fellowship programs at these locations:
- Albany, NY
- Albuquerque, NM
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Baltimore, MD
- Bay Pines, FL
- Buffalo, NY
- Columbia, MO
- Detroit, MI
- Durham, NC
- Hines, IL
- Honolulu, HI
- Jackson, MS
- Little Rock, AR
- Loma Linda, CA
- Greater, Los Angeles CA (West LA)
- Long Beach, CA
- Manhattan, New York Harbor NY
- Providence, RI
- Salem, VA
- Salt Lake City, UT
- San Diego, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Tampa, FL
- Washington, DC
- West Haven, CT
- White River Junction, VT
For further information contact:
Robert Zeiss, PhD
Acting Director, Associated Health Education
202-357-4028
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