Back when I was in the second year of my psychology degree, I remember being unsure about which career path I wanted to take. I have always been interested in clinical psychology, but had no idea what it was like or whether it would be something I am truly passionate about. This is especially important for a career path that is extremely competitive and potentially taxing – all of these reasons were exactly why I chose to do a placement year. Now, as someone who currently works in a tier 4 CAMHS service and has settled into the workflow, I feel I have learnt a lot about what it’s like to work alongside clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other specialists. My role shares some of the responsibilities of an assistant psychologist; however, as an undergraduate, I don’t have any direct, unsupervised contact with clients.
Looking back, I would have loved to hear the direct perspectives of undergraduate students like me working in a clinical setting – after all, you don’t want to spend years working towards a career you end up hating. Therefore, I have decided to give you a brief rundown of what my average week looks like as an honorary psychology placement student working in a clinic specialising in autism. Of course, my weeks vary a lot, and what I do depends on various factors, such as upcoming meetings and whether there are any new patient referrals or intakes, but I hope to encapsulate some of the realities of working in CAMHS as a placement student.
Monday
For me, Mondays tend to be relatively relaxed because I can often work from home on those days. Occasionally, I may have the opportunity to observe and take notes for an online assessment or consultation hosted by another discipline/team in my service. Consultations often include professionals from external services, such as a psychologist from a tier 3 CAMHS service local to the young person being discussed.
Besides that, I normally use Mondays to catch up on administrative tasks and emails. I also meet online with the other undergraduate student also working in the service, so that we can catch up and support each other if needed. I find this especially important as we are the only undergraduates working there, and our responsibilities are almost the same.
If I have been sent any new patient referrals, I may summarise the purpose of the referrals along with any questions or concerns outlined in preparation for Tuesday’s weekly meeting.
Finally, on Monday afternoons, I help out with one of the child group interventions that takes place online.
Tuesday
Our service normally conducts three assessments a week, but I typically support the Tuesday assessments, so those are the days I have to be on-site. However, before this, we have our weekly team meeting first thing in the morning. This is when the referral summaries made and circulated to the team the previous day/week will be discussed. Based on the information we have received and collated, the team will decide whether to accept or reject the referral, or whether to request more information from the referring service.
Before we meet with the parents and the child, I’ll meet with the rest of the assessing team to discuss the person who will be visiting our clinic. This allows me to gauge what to look out for during the assessment. The assessment process will differ slightly based on what condition(s) are being assessed for, as well as the purpose of the visit (for example, whether it’s for a second-opinion diagnostic assessment, or for an assessment for treatment). Parent and child interviews normally occur simultaneously in different rooms, so I tend to alternate weeks on which part I observe and take notes for. Therefore, I will either be observing a young person's interview through a one-way mirror or be in the room taking notes next to the clinician or consultant during a parent interview. Many of these assessments will focus on the question of autism and/or ADHD, so examples of things I may be expected to observe and note down include restricted and/or repetitive movements, as well as atypical speech patterns or body language.
After the assessment (which normally takes a couple of hours), the whole assessing team will share each other’s observations in a formulation meeting (which I will take minutes for). We will also agree on the scoring for any screening or diagnostic tools performed on the day.
Wednesday
Wednesdays may be less busy for me depending on the week, but I tend to work from home on this day. Normally, I will be doing administrative tasks on this day, such as writing up accessible versions of assessment reports for young people or scoring and interpreting quantitative measures from pre-intake screening questionnaires under supervision of one of the clinical psychologists. I may also write and send appointment welcome letters to young people with an assessment scheduled for next week, so they know exactly what to expect on the day.
On Wednesdays, I also have my weekly supervision meeting with my supervisor, which is a good opportunity for me to ask questions and seek out support and guidance. Additionally, I may circulate various updates to the team, from meeting reminders to update requests for the service-wide newsletter that I compile with the other undergraduate student on alternating months.
Once a month, we also have case discussion meetings, where we can bring up specific young people for discussion, whether it's related to any case concerns or risks, or for any plaudits from service users.
Thursday
Thursdays also typically involve me working from home and carrying out similar tasks that I normally do on the previous day. I also have the opportunity to shadow or take notes during some parent-mediated interventions, such as parent psychoeducation, held over Teams. I may also write up pre-intake or pre-assessment reports for the next young person my team will see. Furthermore, I sometimes help the trainees during their pre-assessment courtesy calls with a parent, taking notes of any updates and concerns a parent might have the week before the young person turns up to the clinic. Sometimes in these calls, a parent will ask us to send their child a welcome letter outlining what to expect on the assessment day. In that case, I will also write a short letter for them and send it before the assessment.
Last year, I also used Thursdays to meet with a couple of my colleagues on Teams as we worked on a quality improvement project related to the assessment process in our service. Those meetings allowed us to catch up and discuss our next steps in the project. After these meetings, I typically spent some time compiling and analysing patient data on Excel, which was then used to guide the project.
Friday
I don’t work on Fridays, so I treat this day like a weekend while trying to be a little bit productive at the same time. This tends to be the day when I catch up on my university-related assignments and commitments, which are required for me to pass the year.
Conclusion
Overall, I have been inducted into many processes, and I find myself constantly busy with something to do throughout my working week. However, learning about the processes in a clinical psychiatric/psychological setting has been enjoyable so far, and it is also proving important in helping me make an informed decision about my career pathway. If you are considering a clinical psychology placement, I highly recommend doing one, especially if it’s something you plan to pursue in the future. You get taught so much about how psychology is applied to real-life settings that lectures and theory alone could never truly encompass. Furthermore, I believe this opportunity will give me a significant edge in shaping my future dissertation topic and in my future job applications.
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