The use of paraprofessionals in the helping profession: A look at trends in North America

Abstract

The employment of paraprofessionals in the psychologically based helping professions, a development that was popularized in North America in the 1960s, has had wide ranging effects on the entire field of human services. The range of these services has been expanded and the role of professionals has been redefined. There is a clearer recognition that in professions which are based on understanding and relating to people, there are some lay individuals who have skills which are more effective than those which could be acquired in a graduate University program. From the 1960s there is considerable research evidence to show that on the facilitative conditions of empathy, positive regard and congruence, lay trainees demonstrate counseling outcomes at least as constructive as their training supervisors or professional practitioners in general (Carldauff, 1966). During the 1970s there has been more of a tendency to provide perspective to the use of paraprofessionals. Writers in the field are less inclined to romantically exalt the effectiveness of the nonprofessional. The focus has been on more clearly identifying what particular functions a variety of paraprofessionals can serve within a broad spectrum of possible areas and settings. The intent of this paper is to review this more recent literature and to summarize some of the directions that appear to be indicated by both research results and informed opinion. The focus is to describe how lay personnel might be most effectively utilized by professionals.