Clinical psychology in Canada: Challenges and opportunities.

Abstract

It is a singular privilege to prepare this article, related to the future of in Canada. Consistent with other definitions, clinical psychology is conceived of here as a broad domain of professional (Vallis & Howes, 1996). Within the Canadian context, the Clinical Psychology Section of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) adopted a working definition shortly after its creation in 1991, and this definition was subsequently voted on and approved by the Board of Directors of the CPA in 1993. This definition serves several purposes, including the following: (a) an advocacy document that identified training requirements and provided a discussion point related to competency, (b) a document to begin the process of specialty designation in professional psychology, and (c) public education and awareness of the specific skills and limits of psychologists in practice.Included in the definition was the concept that is a. . . broad field of practice and research within the discipline of psychology, which applies psychological principles to the assessment, prevention, amelioration, and rehabilitation of psychological distress, disability, dysfunctional behaviour, and health-risk behaviour, and to the enhancement of psychological and physical well-being. (Vallis & Howes, 1996, p. 124)This definition incorporates the idea of the scientist-practitioner, who is a professional trained to both conduct and evaluate research, and to engage in professional activities within the scope of practice incorporated into the definition. Clinical psychologists work with individual clients, couples, families, groups, organizations, and systems.1 Some would argue that the domain of comprises five subspecialties, including adult mental health, child (and family) mental health, health psychology, neuropsychology, and forensic psychology, although advocates of the latter three areas may also argue that these are distinct areas of practice, and indeed, the CPA has distinct sections for each of these areas. For the sake of the current article, these five areas of research and practice are considered under the umbrella term of clinical psychology. Admittedly, however, this article was written by an individual with a particular place in the field, which includes a focus on adult mental health. It must be left to others to flesh out recent developments and the future of the other subspecialties of psychology.This article is comprised of four major sections, related to training, evidence-based practice, in practice, and the current and potential roles for in Canada. Each section is in turn divided into critical issues which either currently shape the profession, or which can be reasonably argued to be on, or just over the horizon. Unlike Nostradamus, I profess no ability to predict generations or centuries into the future!Training Issues in Clinical PsychologyThe training of psychologists in Canada has shown relatively steady growth. Universities have recognized that these programs are very much in demand, and that the desire for such training far outstrips the collective ability of universities to provide the training. As a result, the applicants who gain admission to these programs have very strong academic abilities and performance and as a partial consequence, their academic success in graduate school is also uniformly high. The training of psychologists in Canada has benefitted enormously from the process of accreditation. Although the earliest programs in Canada had to seek accreditation from the American Psychological Association, as CPA had no such program, CPA has conducted program accreditation since 1994. The criteria for accreditation have evolved over time, and most notably as a result of the Psy.D. Task Force, which examined the acceptability of the scholar-practitioner model of training as an alternative to the scientist-practitioner model that is more typically seen in degree programs that culminate in the Ph. …