NEW FALL 2008
Certificate Program in Community Mental Health

ABOUT THE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
California Institute of Integral Studies announces a new certificate program in Community Mental Health through its Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program. Classes begin fall 2008.

The certificate program is designed for people who already have earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology or for those enrolled concurrently in one of the other counseling psychology concentrations at CIIS.

Goals
The Community Mental Health Program at CIIS, which is comprised of an MA in Counseling Psychology, concentration in Community Mental Health and the Community Mental Health Certificate, has been designed to help build a culturally competent and diverse mental healthcare workforce specifically trained to provide effective therapeutic services to populations in the public sector.

Specific goals of the Certificate in Community Mental Health program include:

• Increase the number of certified professionals in community mental health who are from racially/ethnically and socio-economically diverse backgrounds;
• Empower community mental health professionals to provide counseling and mental health services that meet diverse clients’ needs and expectations, including those with severe mental illness; and
• Support professionals who wish to increase their knowledge base and skills in community mental health area or areas directly related to it.

Collaboration
The Community Mental Health program represents an important collaboration between the academic and public mental health sectors. Community and public agencies have indicated their interest in working with CIIS to develop and implement the program. An advisory council will help ensure that the program design continues to meet the needs of these agencies and will help strengthen the ties CIIS has to organizations that are the potential employers of our graduates.

Many professionals were consulted during the planning stage of the community mental health initiative. They were asked for their input regarding the need for a community mental health program and the training it would require. Clinics and treatment programs are now seeing clients who have severe psychopathology, dual and triple diagnosis, substance abuse, who belong to the Asian and Latino communities, and who may be impoverished and homeless. Therefore, directors and clinicians who were interviewed expressed unanimous support for the new program based on their experience of the level and type of therapy now required to serve an increasingly diverse community of clients.
 
Directors and clinicians indicated they look forward to working with CIIS graduates who will intern at their clinics or be hired as new staff. Having already received core course training in areas such as cultural competence and case management, the graduates will eliminate the need for clinic staff to spend valuable time training them in essential areas of client need.  They will also enter the field with a greater level of expertise and be able to offer quality treatment to clients. 

Certificate Program Format
Courses will be taught in a combination of weeklong intensives at the start of each fall semester, weekends, evenings, and online. While courses in the concentration program will be offered on the weekends and evenings, a section of each certificate course would also be offered during daytime hours during the week. 

Learning Activities
As an integral part of their counseling psychology education, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of intensive and supplemental case management and the provision of public sector therapeutic services in order to prepare them to work effectively in collaborative, multidisciplinary teams with other mental health and primary care providers. Course work will be closely integrated with practicum work in community agencies, where students will be observed and counseled in their work with clients of diverse cultures and with complex and often severe mental health issues.