Internship

Project Summary

The U.S child mental health crisis indicates insufficient access to behavioral health care in a timely manner. The Indiana Behavioral Health Access Program for Youth (BeHappy Program) seeks to address the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage by connecting community based primary care providers to board certified child and adolescent psychiatrists. Primary care providers are offered resources to effectively practice evidence-based care to their patient’s mental health needs, including assessment, diagnostic clarification, medication management, and treatment planning. The same-day telephone consultation responds efficiently, offering direct assessment and psychotherapy services either virtually or in-person, reducing the risk of worsening symptoms. In addition, Be Happy provides continuing education sessions about pediatric behavioral topics through ECHOs, giving primary care providers the confidence to independently address their patient’s mental health needs in the future. 

During my internship, I have assisted in coding quantitative and qualitative raw patient data which is helpful for analysis. The BeHappy clinic’s dataset can be compared with statewide data to identify the demographics they serve. It can also assess the program’s progress and provide feedback to the involved grants supporting the project.

Workplace

Qualities I possess that are strengths to my site as a team member include my compassion and interest in the mental health field for youth. These are strengths that translate into my eagerness to partake in my site's mission. Due to my enthusiasm, I am devoted to participating in all presented opportunities. 

I want to grow my professionalism by growing independence, confidence, and trustworthiness.

Independence would manifest as completing tasks asynchronously and receiving input as needed. This is attainable by initially asking clarifying questions, but later on not requiring immense clarification. Independence will grow my confidence as a professional which is beneficial for any future positions in a similar environment.

Confidence is an essential skill that is applicable in various contexts and a quality I currently struggle with. It can develop through constant reflections on my work and growth in my interactions within a professional workplace. This can further translate into my teammates' trust in my competency. 

Trustworthiness would imply my supervisor's belief in my competency to complete new or daunting assignments. It would also include less supervision as I demonstrate my abilities. Lastly, it could include exposure to participate in settings with authorities. 

Successes and Challenges

Successes:

In the beginning of my internship, I faced the challenge of completing various research certifications due to working with protected health information (PHI). I was initially unaware of all of the regulations that undergo in research, but I quickly recognized their importance. It was difficult reading documents about laws, but I overcame this challenge by asking my supervisor about their importance in his work. After aquiring my certification, I felt competent and informed of the regulations I must implement in my work as a research intern. This is a valuable experience to my future career because it provided me clarity of the requirements involved with human subjects. 

After gaining access to PHI, I experienced the success of conducting my work independently. I learned how to obtain patient data from a medical chart through the IU Health database. Initially, I was nervous and overwhelmed because I was tasked to extract quantitative and qualitative data for nearly 300 patients. After practicing with some examples that were already completed, I gained confidence and efficiency in retrieving patient data. Proficiency in navigating a medical database is an essential skill in healthcare that I could encounter in my future career.

Challenges:

The most difficult aspect of research that I encountered was the consistent referncing of literature. I was tasked to read articles related to child psychiatry access programs to understand how the site's program worked. Initially, this was challenging since I had no prior experience in reading scientific articles. Furthermore, it was challenging to identify and recall important features of the articles that were applicable to my project. When I attended psychiatry grand rounds, I noticed some presenters verbally referenced articles that were not listed in their presentation. I wondered how it was possible to recall specific information from an abundance of articles, but I soon learned that it is an important component of research.

Another challenge I have encountered during my internship has been my creativity with my research project. I have grown accustomed to following rubrics which made it difficult for me to evaluate my progress. I was given extensive flexibility in researching anything I found interesting, but found it overwhelming since I have never conducted a research project before. To overcome this challenge, I found it easing to simply continue collecting my data and note any trends that I could potentially form into a question. I had learned from my supervisors to condense my data which is a valuable skill when assessing what data is relevant to your focus. My supervisors helped me identify any interesting trends that I could research and I quickly learned that it is okay for some ideas to not work out. For example, I was interested in researching the severity of the patient's case, but I could not form a research project around that. I was also intrigued in seeing if patients who were referred to the clinic had a trend in their diagnosis, but there was too much qualitative data. These instances made me learn the importance of adaptability and creativity in research. These are essential skills in science that I will continue to grow throughout my professional career.