Underserved populations

[winnie]

When people talk about populations which are "underserved" by clinical psychology, who exactly are they talking about?

I'm thinking one group might be people with schizophrenia, but do you guys know of others?

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[50960]

I assume they mean rural areas, and socio-economic/cultural groups that typically do not utilize mental health services for one reason or another.

 

[winnie]

Thanks, that certainly makes sense. I guess I'm interested in whether there are shortages of specialists in particular conditions/population groups, as well as in particular geographical areas.

For instance, is there a shortage of people who want to work with the elderly or with schizophrenia?

 

[Portlymutt]

If you're trying to figure out what is needed in a particular area, call the Red Cross or the NAMI division that is closest to that area. They can give you a list of support groups and other resources and you can see what's missing. I worked for one of the NAMI offices, and one of my jobs was to help people find counselors. For example, I had a woman who was looking for a counselor or psychologist who specialized in PTSD. The catch was that her ptsd was from a wartime situation. Nobody in the Seattle area had experience with this except for psychologists who worked with the VA hospital and they worked exclusively with veterans. The closest help was a counselor in Olympia, 60 miles south of Seattle who had retired from the VA and now works out of her home. We found her through the Red Cross. Both of those organizations are great information sources.

Chris

 

[purpledoc]

Thanks, that certainly makes sense. I guess I'm interested in whether there are shortages of specialists in particular conditions/population groups, as well as in particular geographical areas.

For instance, is there a shortage of people who want to work with the elderly or with schizophrenia?

There is a shortage of geriatric specialists in all health fields. With the baby boomers aging, this problem will only grow. There is also a chronic shortage of child specialists in almost all health fields.

How much of a shortage depends on where you live. The worse the shortage of psychologists in general, the worse the shortage of specialists of all kinds.

 

[winnie]

Thanks for the info, Portlymutt and Purpledoc.