[Commpsych] FW: Urgent message and invitation to all Community Psychology graduates and fellow travellers

[Heather Gridley]

Dear Community Psychology graduate - or fellow traveller - please forward as appropriate to anyone interested

 

On behalf of the APS College of Community Psychologists, we are writing to encourage you to become involved with the College, and to let you know about some urgent new developments. Please read below and attached.

 

As you would know, the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) was introduced on July 1st 2010 for all health professions, including psychology.  The new Psychology Board of Australia (PBA) thus replaces the Victorian Psychologists Registration Board (and other state equivalents).  As part of the new scheme, the PBA nominated nine specialisations corresponding with the nine APS Colleges for endorsement as areas of specialised practice in psychology.  Unfortunately and bizarrely, the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council (AHWMC) approved only seven of these areas, and excluded Community Psychology and Health psychology from the list for endorsement.  We are of course working hard to reverse this decision - but the most serious implication is that community psychology postgraduate training is unlikely to continue anywhere in Australia if we are not successful. See http://www.psychology.org.au/about/representation/specialisation/

 

With the support of almost 3000 petitioners from every State and Territory in Australia, we have requested that the Council approve Community Psychology and Health Psychology as areas of practice endorsement under the Health Practitioners Regulation Act. (www.gopetition.com/petitions/endorse-community-psychology/signatures.html), on the basis that when the original decision was made to exclude these two specialisations, the Ministerial Council was apparently very poorly advised.  Needless to say, our case would be greatly enhanced if eligible psychologists were stepping in numbers up to claim the title by joining the APS College.  So yes, Community Psychology NEEDS YOU NOW if it is to survive at all.

 

Full membership of an APS College currently requires a Masters degree in the relevant specialisation plus one year of experience that incorporates at least 80 hours of college-specified activities (comprising supervision and/or professional development).  All colleges are also required to offer alternative entry paths incorporating an examination process and/or a bridging plan.  This option may be attractive to experienced psychologists with fourth-year training in Community Psychology who are already full members of APS, since there are still very few psychologists in Australia with formal training or qualifications in this field.  You can find details of how to join at http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccom/join/. Please feel free to contact the membership secretary, Catherine D'Arcy, (03) 9757 6261; email: catherine.darcy at kchs.org.au if you need advice about the application process.

 

The other reason why this matter is urgent is that the rules for joining APS colleges are about to change, to bring them into line with the PBA requirements for endorsement in an area of specialist practice - these new rules, if passed at the APS AGM in October, will apply to all colleges from January 1, 2011, regardless of whether the PBA reverses its exclusion of health and community psychology, as we are hopeful that it will.  So as of 2011, full membership of an APS College is likely to require a Masters degree in the relevant specialisation plus two years of approved supervised experience.  The options of a non-standard or alternative route to college membership will no longer be available.  Psychologists wishing to receive specialist practice endorsement on the basis of their membership of an APS College have until 30 September 2010 to complete their applications and lodge these with the APS.  The APS will assess these applications on evidence, as at 30 June 2010, of satisfactory completion of the requirements under the existing standards.  Successful applicants will then be eligible to apply to the PBA for area of practice endorsement.  As yet this arrangement does not apply to community or health psychologists, and it is not clear to us what the timelines would be, should we be successful in having these two areas accepted for endorsement.  But in view of the likely changes to APS College membership rules, we are encouraging anyone who might be eligible under the existing system to apply sooner rather than later - http://www.psychology.org.au/national-registration/news/#s2   

 

If you are not a Member, Associate Member, Affiliate or Student Subscriber of the APS, you can still subscribe to the Community Psychology email discussion list "CommPsych", (for no charge!). Do sign on - it's a great way to keep in touch with your community psychology community.  Just go to https://lists.curtin.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/commpsych and follow the instructions for first-time subscribers.  You can also access the Community College's journal, The Australian Community Psychologist (ACP) online at http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccom/publications/ 

 

Let's know if you have any queries on any of the above - it's complicated!

 

Best regards

 

Heather

 

Heather Gridley 

Honorary Fellow
School of Social Sciences and Psychology 
Victoria University 
PO Box 14428 
Melbourne VIC 8001 
Australia 


MOBILE: 0419 113 731 

Email: heather.gridley at vu.edu.au

 



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