Psychologist heal thyself: What is available for the impaired psychologist?

Abstract

The issue of the impaired psychologist has generated increasing interest in recent years. Many other professional groups such as doctors, nurses, and lawyers have established formalized programs for identifying and aiding distressed colleagues. An ad hoc committee was established in 1981 by the American Psychological Association, and this committee is in the process of developing a program for consideration by the Board of Professional Affairs. This article reviews some of these efforts. A survey of each state licensing board and psychological association was conducted to try to determine what regulations and options exist for handling impaired psychologists. The survey found a wide variation in state law. All laws contained provisions for revoking licenses of psychologists, and most detailed hearing (due process) procedures. Over half had made provision for reinstatement of license; however, few states detailed any procedure for remediation. Of the state psychological associations who responded, none had a program for impaired psychologists, although a number of states were in the process of developing programs. Guidelines and ideas for such program development are offered.

Criteria of Nonacademic Characteristics Used to Evaluate and Retain Community Counseling Students

“…For example, one specific criteria for impairment might be interferences in professional functioning due to substance abuse, sexual overtures, burnout (Wood, Klein, Cross, Lammers, & Elliott, 1985), mental illness, chemical dependency, or personal confiict (Laliotis & Grayson, 1985). In addition.…”

Practicing School Psychology While Impaired: Ethical, Professional, and Legal Issues

“…In this regard, Barnett and colleagues (2007) defined distress as "a subjective emotional state or reaction experienced by an individual in response to ongoing stressors, challenges, conflicts and demands" (p. 603). In contrast, impairment is often defined as "an inability or diminished ability to adequately perform work-related duties due to the presence of issues such as substance use, mental illness or other personal problems" (Williams, Pomerantz, Segrist, & Pettibone, 2010, p. 150; see also Guy, 1987;Laliotis & Grayson, 1985). Distress, therefore, is construed as being present before an individual becomes impaired, with distress not necessarily leading directly to impairment (Barnett & Hillard, 2001).…”

Trainee Impairment

“…Although articles examining these issues appeared using various terminology and perspectives, such as "distressed" or "troubled" (Kilburg, Kaslow, & VandenBos, 1988; Thoreson, Miller, & Krauskopf, 1989), "the psychologist's personal problems" (Deutsch, 1985), "personal distress and therapeutic effectiveness" (Guy, Polestra, & Stark, 1989), or "burnout" (Ackerley, Burnell, Holder, & Kurdek, 1988;Farber & Heifetz, 1982;Raquepaw & Miller, 1989), the term impairment began to be recognized and used to organize a broad range of issues from personal distress, to decreased professional functioning, to ethical violations to incompetence. Laliotis and Grayson (1985) established the best recognized definition of impairment within the field of psychology as an "interference in professional functioning due to chemical dependency, mental illness, or personal conflict" (p. 84).…”