Psychology training clinics in Australia and New Zealand: Clinic structure

Abstract

Psychology clinics play a central role in training clinical psychologists. Surprisingly little empirical research has examined the structure or operations of clinics. A survey of directors of clinical training, and psychology clinic directors in Australia and New Zealand is presented. Clinics in this region vary enormously in size, throughput and staffing levels. They range from being fully funded by their university to being entirely funded out of their external income stream. Clinic-clinical program relationships are generally positive and the majority of respondents are moderately satisfied with their clinic. The greatest dissatisfaction was in research productivity: a more even balance between clinical service, training and research is desired. Contexts differ significantly between regions and universities; the results should not be used for simplistic re-evaluations of particular psychology clinics. The study, however, provides a useful description of the services being operated and raises questions that may be fruitful avenues for research.

Exploration of Client Profile and Clinical Outcome in a University Psychology Clinic

“…Regular evaluation of clinical outcomes linked to trainee psychologist performance will increase the credibility of the field of clinical psychology and training in university clinics. It is suggested that this practice is likely to increase the profile of and improve standards for accreditation purposes in clinical psychology training programmes (Babbage, ; Gonsalvez et al, ). The current evaluation of client profiles, disorder types, and effectiveness of therapy will provide comparable information for future research of its kind on university‐based clinics in Australia (Murrell et al, ).…”

“…Few published studies from university‐based clinic settings have evaluated clinical outcomes to determine effectiveness of therapy. Prior research has focussed on the effectiveness of training and clinic structure (Babbage, ; Gonsalvez et al, ).…”

“…Previous Australian studies of university‐based psychology training clinics have examined structure and/or functional operations of clinics. The focus has been on the effectiveness of training clinical psychologists within these clinics (Babbage, ; Gonsalvez et al, ). Researchers suggest that further outcome studies of Australian clinics are needed to assess clinical psychology training programmes (Gonsalvez et al, ; Stallman, ; Stallman & Shochet, ).…”

“…University‐based psychology clinics provide appropriate training of clinical psychologists under intensive and expert supervision in a supportive environment (Gonsalvez, Hyde, Lancaster, & Barrington, ). In Australia, master's level trainees in clinical psychology are referred to as “provisional psychologists.” The advantage of this style of training is that clinics provide training that integrates psychological theory, research, and practical application in professional development (Babbage, ; Gonsalvez et al, ; Murrell, Steel, Gaston, & Proudfoot, ). To ensure standards are maintained for accreditation/quality and clinical best practice processes for training programmes, it is imperative to evaluate the effectiveness of clinic operations.…”

The First Experience of Clinical Practice on Psychology Students’ Imaginary

“…Among the productions that are directly aimed toward the consideration of specific moments in the academic development of psychologists, it is worth remembering those of Babbage (2008), Gonsalvez, Hyde, Lancaster and Barrington (2008) and Lewis, Hatcher and Pate (2005), which rigorously addressed the importance of the university clinic and the supervision in the professional development of psychologists. We also highlight the studies of Aguirre et al (2000), Aiello-Vaisberg (1999) and Moratto (1989) who, from different methodological perspectives, presented pedagogical proposals to deal with the affective-emotional aspects of the students that emerge in the first contacts with patients.…”