Identifying perceived personal barriers to public policy advocacy within psychology.

Abstract

Public policy advocacy within the profession of psychology appears to be limited and in its infancy.Various hypothesized barriers to advocacy within the field are analyzed in this study. Findings indicate that those who advocate do so regardless of whether the issue is specific to the profession of psychology or specific to another field. Furthermore, several components, including disinterest, uncertainty, and unawareness, were identified as barriers to advocacy. However, all barriers were subsumed by a lack of awareness of public policy issues. By identifying barriers to advocacy in psychology, programs promoting advocacy could be fine-tuned to address the lack of knowledge, which inhibits students, professionals, and clinicians from engaging in the essential role of public policy advocacy.

Exploring Community-Based Advocacy Work Against Human Trafficking in the U.S.

“…Research on public perceptions of human trafficking may be particularly relevant as the public decides whether or not to support the programs of human trafficking organizations. A lack of awareness may be related to students and professionals not taking part in public policy advocacy efforts within the field of psychology (Heinowitz et al, 2012). Much of the research on public opinion demonstrates that individuals recognize the severity of human trafficking and experience empathy towards survivors (Houston, Todd, & Wilson, in press), but often struggle to understand the complexity or fail to reflect on the larger social inequalities that create vulnerabilities to being trafficked and may perpetuate the cycle of abuse (Buckley, 2009;Farmer, 2010;Herzog, 2008;Pajnik, 2010).…”

Knowledge is Power: An Analysis of Counseling Professionals’ Medicare Policy Proficiency

“…In order to effectively lobby on behalf of a particular issue, counselors must have a foundational knowledge of specific public policy initiatives (Kiselica & Robinson, 2001;Lee & Rodgers, 2009;Lewis et al, 2002;Steele, 2008). In fact, national advocacy organizations highlight the importance of providing accurate, well-cited information when discussing issues of concern with lawmakers (ACA, n.d.; American Psychological Association [APA], 2014), and a lack of well-informed policy knowledge has been cited by scholars as a deterrent to psychology students actively engaging in advocacy (Heinowitz et al, 2012).…”

From Private Practice to Academia: Integrating social and political advocacy into every MFT Identity

“…In recent years, the social work field has emerged as a leader in advocacy training in master's level education settings. In contrast, there is a dearth of literature related to this topic in the majority of other mental health fields, including marriage and family therapy, mental health counseling, and psychology (Heinowitz et al., ; Ratts, DeKruyf, & Chen‐Hayes, ; Ratts & Pedersen, ). It is unclear why these mental health fields either; (a) designate a chosen few for their advocacy work or (b) appear to only react to threats to the profession as opposed to proactively working to curtail them.…”

“…Said differently, social workers are taught that advocacy is essential to being a social worker. While clinicians from other fields, such as MFTs and psychologists, tend to participate in advocacy based on personal interest, social workers participate in advocacy based on their professional identity (Heinowitz et al., ; Teater, ).…”