Facilitation of Consultation and Communication Between Psychology Doctoral Programs and Internships

Directors of clinical training (DCTs) in doctoral health service psychology training programs play a crucial role in monitoring the training experience of their students throughout the doctoral training sequence including the internship year. Communication with training partners such as internship training directors is an ethical practice and is required by accreditors. However, when such communication is about intern or site problems, it might be hindered by factors such as fear of retribution for students and harm to the future relationship between the training programs. The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) offers an Informal Problem Consultation (IPC) service to provide confidential consultation and support to APPIC stakeholders including DCTs. Analysis of consultation requests from 2012 to 2018 shows that DCTs are most likely to use the service to discuss problems about trainee competence or concerns about the internship training site. Frequencies of types of IPC requests are presented as well as composite samples and outcomes. It is proposed that IPC can be a useful tool for helping break down communication barriers between DCTs and training directors that could interfere with trainers' ability to effectively fulfill the obligation to support students and coordinate with internship programs when difficulties arise.