Contemporary profiles of clinical and health psychologists in Australia

Abstract

Clinical and health psychologists are, collectively, the most numerous of the professional subgroups represented by the Colleges of the Australian Psychological Society. The value of these professionals to the continued health and well‐being of the Australian society is important and this value is underscored by the commitment shown by Australian clinical and health psychologists both to intake‐level education and to the maintenance of continuing professional development once entry into the profession has been achieved. The present paper documents contemporary professional profiles of Australian clinical and health psychologists and relates these to previous information addressing this issue. Quite clearly, those now involved in clinical and health psychology are, by and large, highly educated professionals strongly committed to evidence‐based practice and to the pursuit of experiences which maintain and enhance their professional skills. The changing nature of the Australian health‐care system, however, poses escalating challenges for the profession and many appear to be migrating from the public to the private sectors of practice although they are still not well served by health‐care policies related to funding. Their experiences in this regard (and others) point to areas where a professional body such as the APS can further support these highly valuable professionals.

The Australian Psychology Workforce 1: A national profile of psychologists in practice

“…Of concern when looking across the age range of participants, is the marked reduction in male psychologists that have entered the workforce in the last 10-15 years, with the proportion of psychologists that are female being higher in the younger age groups. This finding is consistent with that of Byrne and Davenport (2005) who reported a trend towards more and younger female practitioners in their sample of clinical and health psychologists when compared to earlier demographic data. Strategies for attracting males into the psychology profession need to be considered.…”

“…A study by Byrne and Davenport (2005) explored the profiles of psychologists including training, employment status, employment setting and role. However, the data were limited as the researchers sampled only those psychologists who were members of the APS College of Clinical or Health Psychologists.…”

Field supervisors' assessments of trainee performance: Are they reliable and valid?

“…Some support for this hypothesis is found in a previous study (Dienst & Armstrong, 1988) that indicated somewhat closer correlations between assessments by supervisors of similar rather than dissimilar theoretical orientations. Although most of our supervisors in the present study (as rated by the placement coordinator) espouse a cognitive behavioural orientation in line with national trends (Byrne & Davenport, 2005), and poor supervisor agreement was found for items unrelated to therapeutic orientation, the impact of differing therapeutic orientations may have influenced results on some items (e.g., 7, 8 and 9).…”

The Australian Psychology Workforce 3: A national profile of psychologists in salaried employment or in independent private practice

“…Anecdotally there has been concern for some time that psychologists are moving away from public sector work in favour of work in independent practice. This was confirmed in a study by Byrne and Davenport (2005) who looked at the role of clinical and health psychologists in Australia and found reduced participation in public sector work when compared to earlier research. Similarly, international research indicates a reduction across time of psychologists working in public sector settings such as hospitals and community health centres and an increase in the percentage of psychologists working in independent private practice (Norcross, Karpiak, & Santoro, 2005).…”