A further look at the role of the psychologist in community health care

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Abstract
The Report—“The Role of the Psychologist in Community Health Care” prepared by a working party of the Australian Psychological Society (Viney, Ed: 1974) is largely devoted to a consideration of new roles that psychologists might be expected to play in expanding community health programmes. The more traditional roles and likely extensions of these, are not examined except insofar as specialist roles are defined and are included in the overall manpower estimates. This paper seeks to supplement the A.P.S. working party views by considering in some detail the role of the psychologist in traditional mental health services and associated fields. on the basis of this, A.P.S. manpower estimates are reconsidered and an attempt is made to predict the likely distribution of specialists and generalists in the various health fields and services. In order to proride a context for this the writer circulated two questionnaires on manpower and training. The first (Smith 1974) was directed to Chief Psychologists in State Mental Health Services and the Commonwealth Departments of Health and Repatriation: the second (Smith 1976) to Registrars of Universities which offer specialist training in clinical psychology. On the basis of the A.P.S. report, information compiled from the questionnaires, discussion with colleagues; and from personal experience in the mental health field, opinions are advanced on future roles and manpower in psychology.

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