Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Masters in Clinical Counseling
The Healthy Families Clinic, a no-fee mental health clinic funded by the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County, has completed its third successful and productive year. This year, the clinic moved to the Health Reach Clinic in Waukegan and has more than doubled the number of sessions from last year. As evidence of the excellent work students in the Psychology Department are doing to meet the mental health needs of the uninsured in Lake County Illinois, we have seen a total of 41 adults and 21 children since September and have provided over 344 therapy sessions. As well as providing a valuable service to the community, this clinic serves as a training site for our students. Psychology students work with students in the Physician Assistant program to provide multidisciplinary treatment.
Another Perfect Performance on the National Counselor Exam! The second class has graduated from the Masters in Clinical Counseling Psychology program, and once again 100% have passed the National Counselor Exam required for licensure as a Professional Counselor. Congratulations to Dr. Kessler and the Counseling Class of 2011! That makes for a perfect record two years in a row!
Two Psychology Department faculty members were recognized with awards from the College of Health Professions this year: Dr. Helen Wilson with the 2011 CHP Scholarship Award for Clinical and Basic Science Research and Dr. Dave Kosson with the 2011 CHP Scholarship Award for Professional Scholarship.
Dr. Larry Perlmuter was recently recognized by Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association, as one of the top 8 reviews out of 1,289 currently reviewing for the journal. Dr. Perlmuter contributed 12 reviews for this journal in 2010.
The Psychology Department has been awarded a grant from the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County to continue to fund the Healthy Families Clinic serving the mental health needs of uninsured children and families. The clinic will be directed by Dr. Arthur Cantos and will move from its current location in the Head Start facilities to the Health Reach Clinic in an effort to develop a comprehensive multidisciplinary primary care model. As well as providing a valuable service to the community, this clinic serves as a training site for our students, and Psychology will be working with the Physician Assistant program to develop a truly multidisciplinary experience.
Dr. Michael Seidenberg recently received a five-year renewal of NIH funding for continued support of a collaborative project with researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, Wayne State University, and Marquette University. This work involves use of fMRI to determine biomarkers for preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dr. Rachel Greenley was recently awarded a 3 year grant from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America to develop a program to enhance medication adherence among adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease. The intervention will be delivered via telephone and will work to teach families a systematic set of problem solving skills with the goal of helping them to better identify barriers to adherence and successfully implement solutions to decrease these barriers. The intervention will also evaluate the optimal number of phone sessions needed to facilitate behavior change.
Tiffany Brakefield, MA, a third-year doctoral student, has received a grant from the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) to support a project examining relationships between sleep and risk for obesity among African American adolescent girls residing in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago.
Dr. Helen Wilson received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in June 2009 for a project titled "Violence exposure and HIV risk in adolescent women of color." Dr. Wilson also published a paper titled "Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Adults Who Had Been Abused and Neglected as Children: A 30-Year Prospective Study" in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health. These findings were highlighted in NIMH Science News.