The aim of this project is to enhance the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's (UWM) American Psychological Association (APA)-approved Ph.D. training curriculum in Clinical Psychology. These changes are in line with the NIMH's call for the development of curricula to train clinician scientists who can develop, test, and implement effective empirically supported interventions (ESIs) for those with various mental health conditions (RFA-MH-08-080). The UWM Clinical Psychology program is a scientist-practitioner program with existing strengths in training the use of ESIs and in integrating science and practice. This project will capitalize on the program's existing training structure as well as existing faculty clinical-research strengths in habit reversal training (HRT) for tic disorders (TD) and trichotillomania (TTM) and behavioral activation (BA) for depression. Two curricular modifications will be implemented. First, with expert consultation, developmentally sequenced training programs for both HRT and BA, and multimodal competency-based assessments to evaluate competency in each intervention, will be created and integrated into the required curriculum. Second, a required course in clinical research methods and related multi-modal competency-based assessments will be developed. The competency assessments will demonstrate that students are adequately trained to (a) incorporate research findings into clinical practice, (b) utilize clinical practice to generate research, and (c) effectively communicate their research ideas into fundable grant applications. A plan for evaluating both the short and long-term effects of the curricular modification is described and a dissemination plan is offered.
