Practitioners' perceptions of the vocational rewards in work with underserved groups: Implications for "rightsizing" the psychology workforce.

Abstract

Although workforce trends indicate an oversupply of psychologists, demographic and epidemiological trends indicate an undersupply of psychologists working with underserved populations. This study surveyed members of the American Psychological Association regarding their perceptions of the rewards and barriers in work with underserved populations and how these perceptions affect interest, satisfaction, and engagement with these groups. Results confirm that practitioners were significantly more interested, engaged, and satisfied in their work with populations that are not underserved and perceived this work to be more rewarding and to involve fewer barriers. Practitioners who endorsed more rewards in work with underserved groups tend to be engaged in practice with these groups to a greater degree. The impact of these findings on recruitment, training, and retaining psychologists to work with underserved groups is discussed.Recent proposals to "rightsize" the workforce have sparked an important debate within professional psychology. Fueled by projections of an overall surplus of psychologists, strategists have proposed measures, considered draconian by some, including undergraduate advising practices that warn of a constricted marketplace, reductions in the class sizes of graduate programs, and restrictions on the accreditation of new graduate programs (Oehlert & Lopez, 1998;Robiner & Crew, 2000). Contributors have pointed to a variety of important factors that complicate any analysis of supply and demand. Conclusions of a saturated marketplace are tempered by analysis of data showing where demand matches or outstrips supply in various localities (Robiner & Crew,

A Foot in the Door: Development of a Summer College Student Internship in Community Mental Health

“…The internship provided a positive experience for interns and assisted them in clarifying career goals through hands on work in a mental health setting. The internship experience along with didactics and supervision promotes interest and greater feelings of competence; this is congruent with research showing that feelings of competence along with deriving personal meaning from work are a reward that correlates with interest in serving underserved populations [1].…”

“…There is a need for behavioral health professionals interested in working with underserved populations, and providing experiences with these populations early in the career trajectory [1].…”

Clinical Geropsychology Training in Generalist Doctoral Programs

“…Without this contact, it will be difficult to develop competence or compassion and care for this population. In addition, research findings indicate that students who have not had direct exposure to underserved populations will be less likely to work with these populations in the future (Kruse & Canning, 2002).…”

“…Often this is the result of lack of contact or comfort with this population. Since research indicates that students are more likely to choose to work within their comfort zone with familiar populations (Kruse & Canning, 2002), psychology graduate programs are encouraged to expand students' contact and comfort with older adults. Some strategies to attract students to consider gaining training and experience with this population might be: (a) include issues related to older adults in required courses so as to familiarize students with the issues related to aging and older adults (see this as a diversity initiative across the curriculum); (b) encourage dissertation projects/research in the area of aging/clinical geropsychology; (c) develop respected practicum sites where students can get good training and supervision in assessment and intervention with older adults.…”

Preparing Psychologists to Work with Underserved Populations: A Faith-Based Pre-doctoral Training Model

“…This reality is underscored by the disproportionately low number of psychologists who provide therapeutic services to underserved clients despite the everincreasing number of psychologists who enter the field annually (APA, 1995;, Robiner & Crew, 2000Peterson & Rodolfa, 2000;Pion, Kohout, & Wicherski, 2000). In response to this trend, Kruse and Canning (2002) noted, "The fact that there are too many psychologists for some communities and too few for others begs an explanation" (p. 58).…”