Health care psychology: Prospects for the well-being of children.

Abstract

Health care psychology for children emerged before its adult counterpart. The Yale Conference on Behavioral Medicine (Schwartz & Weiss, Note 1), generally regarded as the inaugural event for health care psychology for adults, occurred a decade after the field of pediatric psychology had achieved formal structure. Thus, in this area, a prophecy from the Bible is fulfilled: "And a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6).Lightner Witmer may well have been the first pediatric health care psychologist. Brotemarkle (1947) and Watson (1953) both noted that Witmer was interested in "the types of children now quite familiar to the pediatrician: those with physical defects, the retarded, those with learning problems as well as emotionally disturbed children" (Routh, 1970, p. 469). From the medical side of this multidisciplinary endeavor, John Anderson, one of the first physicians to address the topic formally, spoke at the 81st annual meeting of the American Medical Association in 1930 on "Pediatrics and Child Psychology." The talk was later published in the Journal of the American Medical 'Association and is interesting in light of its cautious pessimism:In an age when the word "psychology" is so widely used by so many different people in such a variety of ways, one approaches the discussion of the relationship between psychology and pediatrics with some fear and trembling. It is in part due to a feeling that when the discussion is completed, psychology may seem to be a much more prosaic endeavor than most people believe and hold out somewhat less hope for meeting all our unresolved problems of human relations, at least within the next generation. (Anderson, 1930, p. 101S) But Anderson went on to describe psychologists as possessing "as keen a comprehension of scientific methods, as honest an appreciation of difficulties of making valid generalizations, and as well-trained imaginations as those who are found in any other of the great scientific disciplines."

Providing psychological services in a private pediatric setting: Development of a model.

“…In addition to the positive evaluations received from clients, this model of service delivery was also perceived favourably by the pediatricians, who were strongly supportive of the program, and by the psychologists, who were given training opportunities in a community setting that permitted access to large populations of children with problems in living which were not always psychiatric in nature. While this model provided for a variety of consultative and treatment approaches, the range of services could ideally be expanded into such areas as health maintenance, parent education and training, and psychosocial adaptation to illness (Hannah, 1979;Wright, 1979). The limited time spent by the psychologists in this setting precluded the extensions of the services into these broader areas.…”

“…Pediatric psychology was recently identified as a subspecialty of clinical psychology (Wright, 1979); and, while there has been articulation of the pediatric psychologist's role (Tuma, 1975;Wright, 1979), research in this area has been rudimentary. A number of reports have described psychological consultation services in private pediatric practices (Fischer & Engeln, 1972;Morrison, 1976;Salk, 1970;Schroeder, 1979;Smith, Rome & Freedheim, 1967), but none have yet reported on formal evaluations of the services provided.…”

Crisis in training pediatric psychologists.

“…Training a psychologist who is competent in a specific area of psychology depends on a precise definition and description of the substantive concepts and skills of that area. In spite of several attempts to define them (Stabler & Whitt, 1980;Tuma, 1975;Wright, 1979), a very serious question remains about the appropriate training of pediatric psychologists, namely, How do pediatric psychologists differ, if at all, from clinical child psychologists?…”