Undergraduate Internship
Your time at CARE will be filled with meaningful work experience that will help translate into your professional career.
Expectations
Our goal is to help you! We want you to get as much out of this experience as possible and are dedicated to helping you reach your goals. At the start of the internship it is expected that the supervisor will meet with the intern to create a list of learning goals that the intern hopes to complete. These learning goals should serve as the academic and professional roadmap for your time with us. We will work together to figure out how you can accomplish all of your learning objectives. During this time the supervisor will discuss with the intern place requirements, responsibilities, and discuss hours expected to complete. We want to work with you, we will do everything we can to make sure that your learning goals can match with our organization’s needs
As an Intern you will be treated as if you were an employee it is expected that you will uphold all professional standards. You are expected to appear at your work site as scheduled. In case of illness or emergency you will call in to explain the situation to your site supervisor. Lost time must be made up. You will be working in a professional setting and you will have many of the same responsibilities as other professional staff. It is important that professional ethical standards are followed. Confidential information is not to be disclosed at any time, and that you adhere to additional standards according to HIPAA.
During your time interning here at CARE you are going to learn so much! Some of the skills that you will be able to highlight on at the end of your internship are:
- Maintaining detailed records and multi-tasking within a fast-paced environment
- Managing, arranging, and coordinating calendars, and appointments
- Retrieving data from computer system, maintaining department records, typing and compiling records
- Monitoring and responding to client emails and resolving any complaints or occurrences
- Maintaining organization inventory by checking stock to determine supply levels, expedited orders and delivered materials to workstations in a timely manner
- Providing excellent customer service by appropriately answering client concerns, forwarding messages and confirming appointments as necessary
- Sorting, organizing, and maintaining client and office records accurately
- Creating content and creatively collaborating on projects
- Identifying community resources to support client’s needs
Roles & Responsibilities
Your time at CARE will be filled with meaningful work experience that will help translate into your professional career. Below you will find examples of some of the projects you will be working on.
Creating Intake Packets
When clients first come to CARE there is a series of important paperwork that needs to be completed either before or during their first session. It is important to familiarize yourself with the documents included in the intake packets as clients may have questions. You will be responsible for making copies of the paperwork and compiling all necessary documents together for the intake packets.
Faxing Intake Paperwork
When clinicians have met with their clients for the first time some of the intake paperwork comes back to us and needs to be sent over to our billing department. You will learn how to properly check over filled out documents to make sure everything is documented correctly and will learn to utilize the fax machine.
Refilling Assessments
Our clinicians use multiple resources available to them in order to help diagnose as well as track how well their client is doing throughout their time in therapy. These assessments will run low every now and then and will need to occasionally need to be stocked up. You will learn where to access these assessments, print them out, and file them away in the correct location for easy access for clinicians to find.
Labels
Every new client that comes to CARE gets their own file, these files will contain intake paperwork, assessments, and anything else that is went over in session between themselves and the clinician. Every file needs a label that the clinician will put on their file associated with that specific client. Label requests will come in via email and it will be your responsibility to print out labels and distribute to clinicians’ mailboxes.
Closing Files
After clients are finished being seen at the clinic, their file needs to be properly checked over and filed away in the basement. You will be responsible for checking over the closed cases for any missing information and sending it back to the clinician if information is missing or incorrect. Once all of the information in the file is in the right order and filled out correctly you will need to date the back of the file. Once a file is termed it must be kept for a minimum of 10 years. It is essential that you date them correctly and then proceed to file them away in alphabetical order in the basement file cabinets.
Phone Calls & Emails
When you are working at the front desk at CARE one of your many duties will be managing the phones. Clients will call for various reasons: scheduling an appointment, paying a bill, canceling or rescheduling an appointment and it will be your responsibility to be well versed in helping our clients. Being familiar with clinicians and their titles, and specialties will help. Also understanding how insurance works, what insurance companies we are in network with and which clinicians accept certain insurances over others will also help you when taking an intake phone call. You will also learn how to properly document all interactions you have with clients. You will also be responsible for maintaining the CARE Counseling’s information box, which will be responding to emails, in the appropriate manner.
Marketing Projects
You will be taking the lead on various marketing projects throughout your time here, it is essential that you stay on top of scheduling meetings with your supervisor on a daily to weekly basis to check up with progress being made, as well as receive feedback on current projects. We have been working hard to make our website more accessible to our clients and all of their needs. You will be responsible for creating content and designing our web pages to make everything more client friendly. The opportunity to take the lead on a project while still communicating effectively as a part of a team environment will help you develop your leadership and communication skills even further. Additional projects will come up throughout the time that you spend here, and it is up to you to make sure that you make expected deadlines and communicate effectively with the team.
Community Outreach
CARE Counseling works closely with The Dignity Center an organization dedicated to the efforts of enhancing the lives of individuals living in poverty. Part of your time as an intern here at CARE you will also be spending some of your time at this organization helping with their efforts. This organization offers students the ability to experience hands-on learning as you will learn about their intake and assessment process and help connect members of the community with local resources. You will be responsible for helping to manage the participants referral sources and following up with them regarding services that you have referred to them. Homelessness directly correlates with various mental health disorders; our goal is to help connect these individuals with the appropriate mental health services.
Referral Directory Project
CARE is dedicated to making connections within the community. Counseling is a complex business and many times we lean on community partners to ensure our clients or prospective clients get the best services possible. We are currently working on compiling a directory of resources available to our clients in Minnesota. This list will continue to grow, and change overtime and you will be responsible for compiling new resources to add to this list as well as make any necessary changes when needed.
Learning Experiences
You may have the opportunity to sit in on a clinician’s session with their clients and learn more about the process of therapy. Shadowing a clinician will give you great insight on what the what a therapy session consists of, different therapy techniques used, and greater insight on diagnosing and maintaining treatment plans. Take advantage of the opportunity to speak with the clinicians that work for CARE and ask them questions, they are always open to having a conversation with you! Various training sessions occur at least once a month and it is highly encouraged that you attend.
Supervision
As you begin to get adjusted to being at CARE you will have more individual one-on-one supervision as you begin to learn the process of being a member of our team. Once you begin to gain more confidence and better understand our organization and how we work, you will begin to work more independently. Once you begin to work more independently you will be responsible for staying in touch with your supervisor and scheduling meetings with them. Supervisors can always be reached by phone and email if a face to face meeting with them is not immediately available for when questions and concerns arise. We are a team and if questions arise and your supervisor is not available feel free to reach out to other staff as well, they likely can help you with your questions or concerns. Please inform your supervisor if you are required to meet a certain amount of time under supervision, we will work with you to make sure that your requirements are met.
Documentation of hours
Use one provided to you by your school, if your school has not made one available, you can log your hours virtually through the Time Station Website.
Evaluation
Use one provided to you by your school, in the case that the school has not provided you with an evaluation form will use one of our own to evaluate the work completed throughout your time here.
Compensation
We are unable to fund our internship program at this point in time
Eligibility Requirements
- Be a current student enrolled in a 4-year University
- Major in a field related to human services or mental health
- Ability to complete at least 16 – 24 hours of work per week
