Monitor on Psychology - January 2012 - (Page 50)

New roles for psychologists? Should psychologists worry that they’re being replaced by computer programs or individuals without doctoral training? Absolutely not, says Kazdin. In fact, he says, psychology risks being left behind in an evolving health-care system if the discipline fails to embrace new ways of getting care to those who need it. The physical health-care realm is already moving in this direction, he points out. Take the developing world’s fight against HIV/AIDS, for example. “They have enormous needs that cannot be met by doctors and nurses, but they can be met,” says Kazdin, citing the World Health Organization’s 2008 report Task Shifting: Rational Redistribution of Tasks Among Health Workforce Teams. If psychology digs in and insists that psychotherapy is the only way to get help, says Kazdin, the health system will simply move on. And traditional one-on-one psychotherapy isn’t going to fade away, whatever psychologists may fear, say Kazdin and others. Some psychologists think that “we’re going to outsource psychotherapy to Bangalore,” says Mohr. “But people want psychotherapy; it’s been demonstrated to be effective, and it’s going to continue to have an important — and probably central — place in the mental health care system.” By offering other avenues for receiving care, says Mohr, the ? A brain teaser? Or a psychological test about behavioural change? Learn how understanding behaviour in psychological testing can be one way to drive effective change in your organisation, with the University of Liverpool online MSc in Applied Psychology. Visit our website to discover the solution to the brain teaser, and learn about the online MSc in Applied Psychology. field could treat greater numbers of patients, allocating more expensive and less abundant one-on-one services to those who are in greater need and who do not respond to less intensive approaches. Of course, determining who would benefit from less intensive approaches is key, a point that University of Arizona psychology professor Varda Shoham, PhD, and National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas R. Insel, MD, make in another 2011 commentary on Kazdin and Blase’s piece in Perspectives in Psychological Science. While applauding the goal of reaching more people, they worry that increased use of technology and similar approaches may not make much of an impact on alleviating mental illness. What’s needed, they argue, is better knowledge about who needs more intensive interventions and who could benefit from simplified interventions, plus a national research agenda that puts these questions on center stage. “In the absence of such knowledge,” they write, “we risk treatment decisions guided by accessibility to resources rather than patient needs — the very problem Kazdin and Blase aim to solve.” Practitioners will also have new roles. In addition to providing traditional psychotherapy to the subset of patients who need it, psychologists will need to promote self-help, peer support, Internet-based interventions and other less intensive options, says Steven D. Hollon, PhD, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University. “Someone is going to have to train. Someone is going to have to supervise. Someone is going to have to develop systems. Who better than psychologists?” he says. For Hollon, the prospect of an expanded array of service delivery options is exciting. And it would help American psychology catch up to its counterparts in the United Kingdom and other places where such approaches are already in widespread use. “Psychology defines itself as a discipline that pays attention to the data and the evidence,” says Hollon. “We’ve changed many times over the course of our history. We’re a hardy weed species that always does well.” n Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C. Slide show: Click here to see a demonstration of Dr. David Mohr’s Internet intervention for depression. www.ohecampus.com 4.5"x4.5"_11-05_appliespsych_gp.indd 1 50 M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y • J a n u a ry 2 0 1 2 5/17/11 10:50 AM http://www.ohecampus.com http://www.ohecampus.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - January 2012

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
Contents
From the CEO
Apa’s Statement on the Dsm-5 Development Process
Girl Scouts Badge Promotes Positive Psychology
Early Investments Pay Off for Poor Children, Study Finds
Apa Meets With Chinese Psychological Society to Further Interaction and Exchange
Unique Opportunity for Psychologists to Travel to Cuba
In Brief
Government Relations Update
On Your Behalf
Psychology’s Growing Library of Podcasts
Standing Up for Psychology
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Questionnaire
Science Watch
Beyond Psychotherapy
Perspective on Practice
Yes, Recovery Is Possible
Inequity to Equity
Making E-Learning Work
New Standards for High School Psychology
A Trailblazer Moves On
Psychologist Profile
Plan Now for Psychology’s Regional Meetings
New Journal Editors
Apa News
Division Spotlight
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012