Clinical Placement 1 (PSYC90012)

Students are required to complete 40 days of placement in the University of Melbourne Psychology Clinic. Students will have the opportunity to observe a range of clinical presentations, conduct psychological assessments and deliver psychological interventions, under supervision with adult, child and family patients. They will gain experience in history taking, conducting mental state examinations, arriving at case formulations and making treatment plans. Under supervision, students will be given the opportunity to develop competence in the provision of psychological treatments to individuals and (where possible) groups. In addition, the subject aims to give the student experience of professional psychology practice, including case presentation, report writing and record keeping, managing a clinical caseload, and liaising with other professional practitioners.

Over the 40 days, students are required to complete at least 15 hours of psychological assessments and to accrue a further 85 hours of face-to-face contact with patients (predominately intervention-focussed work). Students are required to participate in regular weekly supervision. Supervisors for the Clinic placement will be registered as both psychologists and supervisors with the Psychology Board of Australia (PBA). Students undertaking this placement must be provisionally registered with the PBA and hold current Police and Working with Children's checks.

Students are also required to attend 4.5 hours of training in the administration and scoring of the WAIS, WMS and WISC and to demonstrate competency in administration and scoring of these tests. They will also be required to complete an online training module (‘RiskAware’) that provides training in awareness of the risks associated with the clinical placement environment and ways to manage or control for these risks.