Crisis in training pediatric psychologists.

Abstract

The United States faces a severe shortage of personnel who are trained in child mental health care. Doctoral programs offering specialty training are in short supply, as are pediatric psychology training programs. In addition, many clinical psychology programs are illequipped to offer curriculae for the development of skills and knowledge bases required by child psychologists. A training conference is desperately needed to communicate about all of the issues involved in this mental health provider crisis if this nation's children are to have access to psychological services.If crisis is defined as that point in a sequence of events where change is expected either for better or for worse, that is, a turning point, then the word crisis is applicable to the current status of training pediatric psychologists. This crisis is not because pediatric psychology is old and stagnant (in fact, pediatric psychology is relatively young, having gained its popularity since the late 1960s and the 1970s), or because anything has gone awry, or because students are not interested in being trained. In actuality, excitement is mounting about the increasing possibilities of applying psychological principles to the primary mental health care of children in pediatric settings, and potential students are clamoring for information about pediatric psychology training opportunities.The crisis to which I refer includes not only a shortage of trained pediatric psychologists but a shortage of all child mental health service providers, which, in turn, results in underservice to children, youth, and families. If American psychology can meet the challenge of improving the quality of mental health services and of increasing the number of trained professionals, the change will be for the better; if not, the change will be for the worse, with fewer children obtaining needed services.The facts attesting to this crisis come from many sources including the President's Commission on Mental Health (1978), which reported that children and youth are among the most unserved and underserved populations. The Commission recommended new services, prevention programs, and expansion of training programs for new mental health professionals.Subsequently, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) adopted guidelines for funding additional and/or revised programs that would adhere to the Commission's recommendations. Thus, by influencing the preparation of personnel for specific priority services and by supporting specific rather than generic curriculae, the NIMH intends to (a) encourage the development of programs that address children's needs and (b) propel psychologists to initiate both the designing of training programs for psychologists who provide services to children, youth, and families and, even more importantly, the development of training standards.In response to these issues and to indications of psychology's reluctance to address the issue of child training as a specialty (see the proposed National Commission on Education and Credentialing in Psycholo...

Mental health services for children: The state of the art.

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Psychological aspects of severe burn injuries in children.

“…As we have indicated, a variety of health psychologists with divergent subspecialties can apply their skills and services to the critical problem of the burned child. In reviewing the training needs of health psychologist in general, many authors have almost exclusively emphasized the aspect of clinical service (Belar, 1980;Gentry, Street, Masur, & Asken, 1981;Sladen, 1979;Swan, Piccione, & Anderson, 1980;Tuma, 1981). However, the importance of health psychology training in nonclinical areas has also been well-articulated (Olbrisch & Sechrest, 1979;Stone, 1979).…”

Health psychology for children: A step-child/stepping stone

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