Home

About Connections

EP Program

Psychology/
Counseling

Social Work

Psychiatry

Social Work Calendar

Family Resources

DBH/IDS

Directions/Map

Contact Us

 

 

 

 

i

Philadelphia Connections
2011 -2012 School Year Enhanced Placement Program

Enhanced Placement Program Student Handbook

q Enhanced Placement Program - Background

The Enhanced Placement program (EP) is a city-funded effort that started in 1999 by Philadelphia Connections (see the What Is Philadelphia Connections?” handout). Through the EP program, Connections provides funding and other support to schools and public/community care provider agencies that collaborate in enhancing field placement or internship experiences for their students.  Connections also provides additional training and educational opportunities to EP students to help to ensure that they are as well prepared as possible to work with public system consumers and their families. The EP program is also aimed at encouraging students to consider taking jobs with public/community behavioral health agencies after graduation.

Since each school-provider partnership is unique, specific field placement or internship enhancements may vary from agency to agency. However, all students accepted into the EP program will receive its basic benefits in return for carrying out basic responsibilities as listed below.

Additional information can be found on our website: www.philaconnect.org.

q Basic Enhanced Placement Program Benefits

  1. Each EP student receives a stipend of $500.00 per school year to cover any expenses associated with attending EP functions, and as an incentive for being involved in the EP program. See the Stipend section below for details.
  2. All EP students are provided with four days of Enhanced Seminars on competencies needed in their field placements or internships. Each participating school and field placement site has agreed to allow EP students to attend these sessions during field placement hours. There is no charge to EP students for these seminars.  See the “EP Enhancement Seminars” section below for details.
  3. Several more all-day presentations and workshops are offered to EP students throughout the year, free of charge. See the “Additional EP Presentations” section below for details.
  4. Additional enhancements to the EP students' placements may be negotiated by Connections with each school-agency partnership. These may include additional seminars at the agency, special case consultation, bringing in experts in various fields, and arranging for additional supervisory or clinical experiences.
  5. As a benefit to field supervisors of EP students, Connections offers a free clinical supervision seminar series.

q Qualifying for the Enhanced Placement Program

  1.  Social work and other degree programs that are participating in the EP program agree to send or allow Connections to send an EP application packet to any student considering a field placement or internship at a Behavioral Health Placement in the Philadelphia area.

  2. After considering the information, students decide if they wish to be part of the EP program. If so, they are asked to sign an agreement (see the EP Student Agreement).

  3. If a student does not wish to be part of the EP program, there is no penalty involved.

q EP Enhancement Seminars

The EP Enhancement Seminars for 2011-2012 are primarily scheduled for four Mondays (see specific dates listed below) during the school year at the Wachovia Building, 123 South Broad Street.  See the “Directions” page for further details about location.  Each seminar day lasts from 9am to 3:45pm.
Note:  Some students are unable to attend on Mondays because they have classes.  A limited-admission seminar series is available on Friday mornings for these students (see specific dates listed below).

The seminars take place on five field placement days during the school year, providing additional
competency enhancement in seven topic areas (the ninth meeting is for assessment and receipt of certificates):

Seminar Topics

·         Overview of the Behavioral Health System of Philadelphia

·         Psychoactive Medication and Social Work

·         Ethical Issues for Students in Community Behavioral Health Settings

·         What Helps and What Hurts: Consumer and Family Perspectives

·         Suicide Assessment and Intervention

·         Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) Use with Children and Adolescents, and Older Adults

·         Dual-Diagnosis assessment and treatment

 

Students will be assigned to one of up to nine groups (depending on total enrollment) of EP students this year: Monday groups 1 through 8, plus a Friday group.  You will be told which group you are in as soon as you are accepted to the EP program, so you will know what your seminar schedule is for the year.  If you have a preference for a certain group and set of dates, please make this known to us as soon as possible.

 Each group will stay together for the eight seminars during the year.  Groups 1 and 2 will meet on one set of four Mondays; groups 3 and 4 will meet on another set of Mondays, etc. 

On each Seminar day, two groups (1&2 or 3&4 or 5&6 etc.) of EP students will be meeting simultaneously in different rooms in the 123 S. Broad building.  The Friday group will have one seminar in the morning and one in the afternoon. 

With this arrangement, we are almost always able to keep the size of each group to fifteen or under to allow for maximum discussion and interaction with seminar presenters.

Below are the dates of the 2011-12 Monday and Friday Enhancement Placement Seminars


Topics for specific seminar times may be subject to rearrangement due to circumstances beyond our control.  Groups 7&8 will only be scheduled if numbers of enrolled students requires.

2011 - 2012 Monday EP Seminar Schedule

Seminars are held from 9am to noon and from 12:45pm to 3:45pm

 

2011 EP SEMINAR SCHEDULE

DATE                          GROUP                       TOPIC

9/12 am/pm                   1 & 2                           Suicide Assessment & Intervention

9/12 am/pm                   1 & 2                           Psychoactive Medications

                       

9/19 am/pm                   3 & 4                         Philadelphia Behavioral  Health System Overview

9/19 am/pm                   3 & 4                           Suicide Assessment & Intervention 

 

9/26 am/pm                   5 & 6                           Philadelphia Behavioral  Health System Overview

9/26 am/pm                   5 & 6                           Basic Psychopharmacology

 

10/3 am/pm                 7 & 8                              Philadelphia Behavioral Health System Overview

10/3 am/pm                 7 & 8                               Suicide Assessment & Intervention

 

10/17 am/pm                 1 & 2                         Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness

10/17 am/pm                 1 & 2                        Ethics in Social Work

 

10/24 am/pm                   3 & 4                         Ethics in Social Work

10/24 am/pm                   3 & 4                         Basic Psychopharmacology

 

10/31 am/pm                 5 & 6                        Suicide Assessment & Intervention
10/31 am/pm                 5 & 6                        Diagnostic Issues--DSM           

11/7 am/pm                 7& 8                          Family & Consumer Perspectives

11/7 am/pm                 7& 8                          Ethics in Social Work

 

11/14 am/pm                   1 & 2                         Family & Consumer Perspectives

11/14 am/pm                   1 & 2                         Diagnostic Issues--DSM

 

11/28 am/pm                 3 & 4                         Diagnostic Issues--DSM

11/28 am/pm                 3 & 4                         Family & Consumer Perspectives

12/5 am/pm                 5 & 6                        Co-Occurring Disorders
12/5 am/pm                 5 & 6                        Ethics in Social Work           

12/12 am/pm                7 & 8                        Basic Psychopharmacology
12/12 am/pm                7 & 8                        Diagnostic Issues--DSM           

 

2012 EP SEMINAR SCHEDULE

 

DATE                          GROUP                       TOPIC

1/23 am/pm                   1 & 2                       Co-Occurring Disorders

1/23 am/pm                   1 & 2                        TBA

 

1/30 am/pm                   3 & 4                        Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness

1/30 am/pm                   3 & 4                        TBA

                                                                                                                                                           

2/6 am/pm                   5 & 6                        Family & Consumer Perspectives

2/6 am/pm                   5 & 6                        Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness

 

2/13 am/pm                     7 & 8                       Co-Occurring Disorders

2/13 am/pm                     7 & 8                       TBA    

 

2/27 am/pm                   1 & 2                       TBA  

2/27 am/pm                   1 & 2                       Final Session: Assessment/Certificates/Stipend invoice 

 

3/19 am/pm                   3 & 4                        Co-Occurring Disorders

3/19 am/pm                   3 & 4                        Final Session: Assessment/Certificates/Stipend invoice

                                                                                                                                                           

3/26 am/pm                   5 & 6                        TBA 

3/26 am/pm                   5 & 6                        Final Session: Assessment/Certificates/Stipend invoice

 

4/2 am/pm                     7 & 8                       Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness

4/2 am/pm                     7 & 8                       Final Session: Assessment/Certificates/Stipend invoice    

 

4/9/12                         ALL GROUPS             Career Day & Job Fair

 

2011 - 2012 Friday EP Seminar Schedule


Seminars are held from 9am to noon and from 12:45pm to 3:45pm

9/23/11         

AM - Suicide Assessment & Intervention

PM - Philadelphia Behavioral  Health System Overview

 

10/28/11         

AM - Diagnostic Issues--DSM                                     

PM - Ethics in Social Work

 

12/2/11        

AM - Basic Psychopharmacology                                             

PM - Co-Occurring Disorders  

 

1/13/12

AM - Family & Consumer Perspectives   

PM - TBA

 

1/20/12

AM - Final Session: Assessment/Certificates/Stipend invoice      

PM - Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness          

 

3/21/10            Career Day & Job Fair

 

For all EP Seminar days, (if the budget allows!) lunch will be served at no charge.  Look for announcement in August-September.

For complete directions to the seminar site, please see the Directions to Connections handout, or go to our website address:
http://www.philaconnect.org/directions.htm

 

*Please Note:
Attendance at all EP Enhanced Seminars is a requirement for being a part of the EP program
If a student has an unavoidable emergency or is ill, the procedure under “Problems” (below, page 5) must
be followed.

Ø      On the first Enhanced Seminar day of each semester there will be some brief paperwork to complete regarding the EP program.

Ø      On each Enhanced Seminar day, there will be a brief group meeting of all the EP students at the beginning of the day in addition to the seminars.

Ø      EP students will be asked to fill out brief feedback questionnaires about each seminar, and there will knowledge evaluation forms to fill out before and after most seminars. These evaluations are only used by Connections to evaluate the effectiveness of the seminars. They are not related to any grades or other school/agency evaluations.

q Stipends

All graduate EP students will receive a basic stipend of $500.00 for the school year to cover any expenses incurred from attending the EP program, and as an incentive to join the program.  Note: Fourth-year BSW students will receive a $300.00 stipend.

 The basic stipend will be disbursed in two payments of $250.00 (4th year BSW students receive two $150 payments).

 First Semester:

You may send in or fill out an invoice (see your packet) for your first stipend payment after you have attended your first day of classes in September 2011.

Second Semester:

You may send in an invoice for the second and final stipend payment after you attend your first Enhanced Seminar day in September 2011.  You must send in your invoice by April 9, 2012 to be assured of receiving the second stipend payment.
 

In order to receive the stipend, you must do the following:

  1.  Be matriculated at a participating school of social work and attending a field placement at a participating BHS agency;

  2. Complete and return to the Connections office (fax, email, mail, or drop off) a Connections Invoice form. See the two Connections Invoice Forms in your student packet.

 The invoices take up to eight weeks to process after we receive them, so you may not get a check for up to eight weeks after your invoice arrives at Connections—plan accordingly in budgeting this money.

 q Additional EP Presentations

 During the course of the school year, other educational and training opportunities will be made available to EP students at no cost. All of these are negotiated with participating schools and agencies. If you have any suggestions about topics, please let your school and placement contacts know about them.

 A schedule of these presentations will be made available to EP students as soon they are arranged.  We ask sponsoring organizations and schools to schedule these events for Monday or Friday whenever possible.

 

q Enhanced Placement Program Evaluation

Enhanced Placement students are asked to participate in ongoing evaluation of the EP program.  This will include filling out feedback and assessment forms at presentations, filling out feedback and assessment forms concerning your experience with the EP program and Connections, joining in feedback discussions when the EP student group meets at Enhanced Seminar sessions, and participating in an exit interview and written evaluation of the program at the end of the school year.

q Problems

Please contact the Administrator of Connections (see contact information below) concerning problems about any part of the EP program, except for scheduling problems. If, after you are accepted to the EP program, you think you may have a problem attending one of the required EP activities, treat it like any other scheduling problem in your field placement: talk to your field supervisor if there is a conflict with your placement schedule or your school placement liaison or professor if there is a conflict with a school activity or class.
If you cannot work it out with them, please contact Ms. Green immediately, and well in advance of the scheduled EP seminar. Having a scheduling conflict is not an acceptable reason for missing a seminar since you know the schedule in advance and you agree to attend all seminars.

In all cases when you cannot attend a required EP activity due to illness or other emergencies, you will be expected to call the Connections office in advance and respond to any return calls from Connections staff.  Failure to do so will jeopardize your EP status and you may be dropped from the program and your stipend revoked.

F NOTE! You must have a working email address where you can check frequently for announcements and updates on the EP program. If you do not have a computer and email, you must find someone who does and who will accept emails we send you and give them to you in a timely fashion. Due to the number of students, faculty, and staff involved in the program, getting announcements out to you by phone or fax will not be reliable. If you have no way of obtaining a reliable email address that you can check at least twice a week, please contact the Administrator.

q Contact Information

Questions?  Please contact:

Luciane Green, Office Manager, -or- Susan Lonker, EP Administrator
123 South Broad Street, 23rd Floor

Philadelphia PA  19109
Office phone: 215-599-5176 (direct) 215-546-0300 Ext: 3236 (through switchboard)
Fax: 215-599-5177

Email: lgreen@pmhcc.org or sal3600@lycos.com

 

This page was updated on:  September 02, 2011