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HRSA grant funds psych internship program The Charleston Consortium Psychology Internship Program received a three-year, $414,150 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.      This grant was one of 20 awarded nationally to psychology internship programs and doctoral training programs in psychology.      The HRSA Graduate Psychology Education Program under which the grants were awarded trains psychologists to work with underserved populations including children, the elderly, victims of abuse, and the chronically ill or disabled. The program emphasizes an integrated approach to health care services that highlights the connection between behavior and health.      The Charleston Consortium is a collaboration between the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC and the Ralph H. Johnson V.A. Medical Center.     Internship training involves faculty from several disciplines and will occur in several academic departments including psychiatry, internal medicine, surgery and the Hollings Cancer Center. Activities supported by the new grant include enhanced seminars covering basic concepts in public health, public health approaches for addressing the effects of terrorism, and skills for developing cultural competence.  Other grant supported activities are new clinical practices working with traditionally underserved patients including racial/ethnic minorities, violence victims, and families living in rural areas. Interns will also be involved in clinical research.    The Charleston Consortium Psychology Internship was established in 1972 and has trained more than 315 interns, many of whom are now licensed clinical psychologists at MUSC, in Charleston, and throughout South Carolina.     “We are extremely pleased to have received this peer-reviewed grant because it will help us improve what is already an excellent internship,” said Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D., director of the internship and of the new grant.    Kilpatrick also announced that a new class reported Aug. 1 for the 2004-05 internship year. These 15 interns were selected from a nationally competitive pool of 168 applicants.     “We are delighted to have been able to recruit such an outstanding group of interns,” Kilpatrick said. Friday, Sept. 3, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.