I'm the MOD in this forum, and you'll see I post all over the place.
I've read a lot of your posts, I enjoy the content very much. I was hoping s/he was still around so I could receive a newb thrashing for my pretentiousness.
I guess another question might be,
what would a person who wishes to address mental health issues want to do, and what knowledge would they want?
I don't know if anyone watches House, but I imagine that there isn't a hospital in all the land where every patient presents with levels of symptoms that could be a thousand different pathologies. I imagine that this fictional scenario of medicine is closer to the reality of clinical psychology, minus that satisfying "aha!" at the end of every House episode.
I'm certain that the delayed or non-present gratification in clinical psychology requires a deep inner desire to care for human beings. It seems essentially like a sacrifice of what most occupations offer- cut and dry, tangible results.
So, what's the big picture that I'm trying to wrap my mind around? Even clinical psychology is a nearly all-encompassing field who's raw material and final product are bordering on abstract and subjective. I don't mean this derogatorily, simply that clinical psychology is by its nature the most complex scientific pursuit.
Looking from my newb vantage point, though I'm sure I'm committing idealism, is that a field of our nature needs open communication between peers and non-peers (thanks SDN) as well as some willful suspension of politics.
In the realm of science, where concrete evidence earns respect, psychology seems to get short shrift (though admittedly I have heard most of it from religious friends who think the mind is the soul, one solitary object- and the brain is sort of a container for non-cognitive biological processes).
I think we all just need to openly state our purposes:
1. Put food on the table
2. Work for the welfare of individuals and society.
Beyond that, environmental circumstances dictate. As I say, I worry that I am not smart or disciplined enough to get a PhD, and I might need PhD study to learn myself some discipline. So if I'm just incapable, maybe my buck stops short of PhD, and I make the best of reality on reality's terms.
It seems like those of us in or around the field are some of the only people who understand why the field is important. So, maybe we develop ways to assert it's importance in the media.
YouTUBE is really picking up. Unfortunately, the first results are from an anti-psychology schill for $cientology who shall remain unnamed. There's no reason why that can't change. With everyone on the forum here's support voting up new, actual psych vids, we can bring our message to the forefront.