A qualitative analysis of advice from and for trainees with disabilities in professional psychology.

Abstract

There is little empirical research on the experiences of professional psychology trainees with disabilities. This study qualitatively analyzed of the advice provided by psychologists and trainees with disabilities to those with similar disabilities. Participants were 41 psychologists (n ϭ 24; 58.5%) and psychology trainees (n ϭ 17; 41.5%) with disabilities who held or were pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical, counseling, school, combined, or rehabilitation psychology and who completed an online survey. The most common disabilities were physical, sensory, and chronic health disabilities, but participants with learning, psychiatric, and cognitive disabilities were also represented.Answers to an open-ended survey question about advice for current trainees with disabilities were coded using grounded theory techniques. Major themes were the importance of seeking support, resources, and mentorship; advocacy; accommodations; disability disclosure; encouragement; dissuasion; and general advice. Participants emphasized the importance of pursuing mentorship and support and encouraged self-advocacy during training but also cautioned of the possible negative repercussions of disability disclosure. Results suggested that trainees with disabilities face many challenges during training and that psychology training programs should actively work to create supportive and disability-affirmative environments for trainees.

“It’s Awful When We Get It Wrong”: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors’ Perspectives on Suicide

“…Because of the relatively short nature of the responses, we calculated interrater agreement (IRA) at both the level of each theme and overall. This method has been used in other research drawing from short qualitative responses to a survey (e.g., Lund, Andrews, & Holt, 2016). As seen in Table 1, both overall and theme-level agreements were within the 75% to 90% range suggested by that is often considered “acceptable” in content analysis IRA (Graham, Millanowski, & Miller, 2012).…”

“…People with disabilities have been identified as one such high-risk group (Giannini et al., 2010; Lund, Nadorff, & Seader, 2016; McConnell, Hahn, Savage, Dube, & Park, 2015; Pompili et al., 2011) across all types of suicidality (i.e., ideation, attempts, and deaths). This increased or elevated risk has been consistently noted in both people with disabilities as a broadly defined group (Lund et al., 2016; McConnell et al., 2015) and for specific disability groups, including people with psychiatric disabilities (Lund, Nadorff, et al, 2016), multiple sclerosis (Giannini et al., 2010; Pompili et al., 2011), autism spectrum disorders (Segers & Rawana, 2014), spinal cord injury (Giannini et al., 2010), and Huntington’s disease (Wetzel et al., 2011).…”

“…People with disabilities have been identified as one such high-risk group (Giannini et al., 2010; Lund, Nadorff, & Seader, 2016; McConnell, Hahn, Savage, Dube, & Park, 2015; Pompili et al., 2011) across all types of suicidality (i.e., ideation, attempts, and deaths). This increased or elevated risk has been consistently noted in both people with disabilities as a broadly defined group (Lund et al., 2016; McConnell et al., 2015) and for specific disability groups, including people with psychiatric disabilities (Lund, Nadorff, et al, 2016), multiple sclerosis (Giannini et al., 2010; Pompili et al., 2011), autism spectrum disorders (Segers & Rawana, 2014), spinal cord injury (Giannini et al., 2010), and Huntington’s disease (Wetzel et al., 2011). The exact mechanism underlying the link between suicidality and disability is unclear, but researchers have found that controlling for depression alone, either via symptoms or diagnosis, cannot fully account for the increased rate of suicidality among people with disabilities (Lund et al., 2016; McConnell et al., 2015), nor can controlling for combined anxiety and depression diagnoses (Dennis et al., 2009; McConnell et al., 2015) or socioeconomic factors (McConnell et al., 2015).…”

“…The exact mechanism underlying the link between suicidality and disability is unclear, but researchers have found that controlling for depression alone, either via symptoms or diagnosis, cannot fully account for the increased rate of suicidality among people with disabilities (Lund et al., 2016; McConnell et al., 2015), nor can controlling for combined anxiety and depression diagnoses (Dennis et al., 2009; McConnell et al., 2015) or socioeconomic factors (McConnell et al., 2015). This suggests that disability may be a risk factor for suicidality itself, above and beyond the general increased risk for depression seen in people with disabilities (Lund et al., 2016).…”

“I Honestly Would Not Have Known What to Do”: An Exploratory Study of Perspectives on Client Suicide Among Vocational Rehabilitation Support Staff

“…People with disabilities—those with a chronic physical or mental health impairment that limits one or more major life activities—have been identified as particularly high-risk group for suicide (Giannini et al., 2010; Lund, Nadorff, & Seader, 2016; McConnell, Hahn, Savage, Dube, & Park, 2015; Pompili et al., 2011). This increased and elevated risk has been found both when people with disabilities are examined as a broadly defined group (Lund et al., 2016; McConnell et al., 2015) as well as when specific disability groups are examined separately.…”