Setting and Populations Served - Ochsner Psychology Doctoral Internship

Ochsner Health serves a large and diverse population of individuals across 47 owned, managed, and affiliated hospitals and more than 300 health and urgent care centers across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Gulf Coast. The Ochsner Psychology Doctoral Internship (OPDI) takes place across two departments of Ochsner Health: the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Pediatrics. The data presented here is specific to the patients that interns serve through their work in these departments.

OPDI’s Adult Track interns conduct more than half of their weekly clinical hours in the Department of Psychiatry outpatient clinic providing long-term psychotherapy, evidence-based treatment, and assessment, such as psychoeducational assessments, Adult ADHD assessments, and presurgical assessments. From January 2019 to October 2021, 20,526 patients were seen by a group of providers that has grown from 28 to 43 within this time frame, including psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. Ochsner Health’s electronic health record does not currently capture data on patients who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming. Therefore, patients are identified by their legal gender, with 64.2% of patients seen during this time period identified as female and 35.8% identified as male. Patients cover the lifespan from age 3 to over 87 years old; however only 11% of individuals seen in the Department of Psychiatry were under age 18. Individuals 18 to 31 years old made up 21% of patients seen, 20.5% of patients were 32 to 42 years old, 15.5% were 43 to 53 years old, 14.9% were 54 to 64 years old, 11.6% were 65 to 75 years old, and 5.4% were 76 years old and up. In this setting, the majority of patients seen identified as Caucasian (67.8%), while 23.1% identified as Black/African American, 3.6% identified as Latinx, and 0.8% identified as Asian. Racial/ethnic background was unknown for 4% of patients seen. The most common presenting concern of patients treated in the Department of Psychiatry was anxiety, with 29.3% of patients diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and 22.5% diagnosed with an unspecified anxiety disorder. Depression was the second most prevalent focus of treatment, with 26.6% of patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, either single episode or recurrent, 13.3% diagnosed with an unspecified depressive disorder, and 6.7% diagnosed with major depression in partial remission. Other common diagnoses included Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (15.2%), Panic Disorder (9.3%), and Insomnia (8.4%).

Interns in the Adult Track choose three 4-month rotations from a total of eight options to participate in during the internship year. Three of these rotation options take place in other departments of Ochsner Health: Oncology and Hematology, Hospital Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine, and OB/GYN. Unfortunately, data for patients seen on these rotations are not available at this time. Psychologists housed at the Benson Cancer Center provide rounding and consultation-liaison services rather than traditional therapy, which makes demographic data of the patients seen difficult to collect. Placement of psychologists at the Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital and within Hospital Medicine, where the inpatient behavioral medicine rotation takes place, and Ochsner Baptist Women’s Services, where the perinatal mood and anxiety disorders rotation takes place, is new as of July 2021. Therefore, meaningful data on the psychology patient populations in these locations is not yet available.

OPDI’s Child Track offers three rotations with distinct populations of clients, which are described separately here. From January 2019 to October 2021, over 11,000 clients were seen across the three rotations by a group of providers that has almost doubled from 8 providers in 2019 to 14 in 2021. The Pediatric Psychology major and minor rotations take place within Ochsner Hospital for Children and the pediatric outpatient building. Through this rotation, interns provide consultation-liaison (C/L) services to hospitalized patients, assessment and intervention services to patients through multidisciplinary outpatient clinics, and/or outpatient therapy for individuals with chronic and/or significant medical conditions. From January 2019 to October 2021, 1,311 patients were seen by psychologists at this location, with 48.4% legally identifying as female and 51.6% identifying as male. Although the data is unable to capture non-binary or transgender identities of patients, 610 patients received services ranging from gender identity exploration to hormone therapy through the Gender Clinic at Ochsner Health during this time frame. Patients seen in Pediatric Psychology ranged in age from zero to 19+ years old with the majority of patients seen falling into the 13- to 18-year-old category (42.1%), followed by 6- to 12-year-olds (35.7%), 0- to 5-year-olds (13.6%), and those 19 and older (8.6%). In this setting, approximately 60% of pediatric patients identified as Caucasian, 25.4% identified as Black or African American, and 5.3% identified as Latinx/Hispanic. For 7.5% of patients their racial/ethnic identity was unknown. The remaining 1.6% of patients identified as Asian, Middle Eastern, or Native American. Half of these patients were seen via telehealth, with the majority of these visits taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of patients and clinicians.

The Child Development major and minor rotations take place at the Michael R. Boh Center for Child Development at Jefferson Highway, where a total of 9,514 patients were seen by developmental pediatricians or nurse practitioners, physiatrists, psychologists, psychometrists, social workers, and/or behavior analysts between January 2019 and October 2021. On this rotation, interns conduct developmental/autism, learning, and/or neuropsychological evaluations and provide behavioral intervention, parent training, and outpatient therapy to address these concerns. Patients at the Boh Center tended to legally identify as male (64.7%) and fall into either the 0 to 5 age range (41.3%) or the 6 to 12 age range (40.7%). Almost 16% of patients seen in this setting were 13 to 18 years old and only 2.2% were age 19 and above. Slightly more racial and ethnic minorities were seen in this location, with patients identifying as follows: Caucasian (52.6%), Black/African American (26.4%), Latinx/Hispanic (6.3%), Asian (1%), Middle Eastern (.64%), Native American (.39%), and the racial/ethnic identities of 12.67% of patients in this setting were unknown. Only 31.6% of patient visits through the Boh Center took place via telehealth during an almost three-year period due to the importance of conducting developmental assessment in person.

Services for the Integrated Pediatric Primary Care major and minor rotations occur at the Ochsner Hospital for Children Westside Pediatrics Clinic in Marrero, Louisiana, where interns utilize brief assessment and solutions-focused treatment to triage patients with developmental, behavioral, emotional, and social concerns. In this location, 462 patients were seen by one psychologist between December 2020 and October 2021, with 48.6% of patients legally identifying as male and 53.2% identifying as female. Patient ages varied, with the break-down as follows: 0 to 5 years old (12.1%), 6 to 12 years old (40.5%), 13 to 18 years old (42.2%), and age 19 and up (5.2%). The highest proportion of Black/African American (32.5%) and Asian (1.3%) pediatric patients were seen at the Westside Pediatrics Clinic. Fifty-three percent of the patients seen identified as Caucasian, 5.8% were Latinx/Hispanic, 0.65% identified as Native American, 0.43% were Middle Eastern, and racial/ethnic identities were unknown for 6.32% of patients. The lowest percent of telehealth meetings (21.2%) took place at the Westside Pediatrics Clinic due to the need for immediate contact with patients identified by their primary care provider as needing consultation.