Australia has 50,000 psychologists, which the Government thinks is not enough to meet community demand. So the Feds commissioned the Psychology Board of Australia to come up with a more efficient pathway to registration.
The Board proposes a five-year bachelor degree for registration as a psychologist, including practical training, with further options to complete two-year ‘areas of practise endorsement.’ The model is intended to reduce the present complex accreditation system and by bringing training into the degree, end the insufficient placements problem.
To which critics respond, there are not enough supervisors to manage placement hours for everybody in a standard degree process. And there is generalised horror at the prospect of dealing with the shortfall by using simulated screen-based learning.
“Judgement takes years of supervised training to build, and it is exactly what this proposal cuts. Less time with real clients means more errors in assessment and treatment. A flawed psychological assessment can cost a life,” warns Leanne Clark who is leading the Clinical Psychology Association’s charge.
The Board says their proposal specifies standardised training and a focus on practical learning; which sounds straightforward – at least until the Group of Eight also got involved. The present proposal would, “dismantle the current range of pathways to registration and replace them with a single, untested model,” the Go8 announced. “This introduces a serious risk to the supply of graduates and would have broader consequences for the psychology workforce.”
The Go8 also warns it will take time and money to redesign courses to suit the new model, which “potentially stifles pedagogical and practical innovation, diversity, and ability to meet the needs of local communities.” Plus, there is a problem for those of its members used to things the way they are; “psychology as a broader field/discipline is disadvantaged – reforms would harm research-practice nexus, researcher pipeline and researcher-clinician models stifling the further development of theory and practice.”
And creating more psychologists, via Commonwealth Supported Places, a big reason for a standardised system, may not happen, the Go8 warns. “There is no guarantee that more CSPs will be offered across the system for the proposed five-year pathway due to higher costs of practice-based delivery and smaller cohorts.”
What happens next is down to Health Minister Mark Butler – an announcement is expected next month.