Dr. Catherine Atkins is Supervisor of Psychology for the inpatient acute rehabilitation unit at Rusk. She is responsible for supervising staff and psychology interns on the unit. She also is responsible for administrative tasks, including but not limited to attending multiple interdisciplinary meetings, serving on committees to improve excellence with regard to patient care as well as education for staff, and ongoing scrutiny of documentation to ensure compliance with hospital and national supervisory agencies. Work on the unit involves performing clinical interviews as well as neurobehavioral evaluations which serve to enlighten the patient, family and team professionals regarding the individual’s issues relative to adjustment to disability as well as current level of functioning. Her PhD in clinical psychology is from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In this two part interview, topics include instruments available to diagnose various mental health problems, the use of metaphors by patients and a psychologist to discuss symptoms/threatening diagnoses/treatment, the role of psychology in dealing with professional compassion fatigue/burnout, and key psychology research topics in rehabilitation.
