CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS ROLES

A survey of all clinical psychologists employed by eight health boards in the Republic of Ireland in 1994/1995 was conducted and the respons e rate was 54%. The views of the 67 respondents on their actual, desir ed and expected future work roles are described in this paper. There w ere clear differences between the actual roles of respondents and thei r desired roles. Respondents wanted more responsibilities in the areas of service planning and organisation; teaching and supervision; resea rch and evaluation; and public relations. They wanted fewer face-to-fa ce clinical responsibilities in the areas of child protection assessme nt and therapy; child psychiatric difficulties and child learning diff iculties. They also wanted less routine administration. Differences be tween respondents' actual roles and the roles they realistically expec ted they would be required to fulfil in the future were similar to tho se between their actual and desired role responsibilities with a few n otable exceptions. They expected there would be little change in their responsibilities for child protection assessment and therapy, despite their desire to reduce their responsibilities in these areas. A conte nt analysis of responses to open-ended questions underlined respondent s' view that the unique contribution of clinical psychology to the Hea lth Boards may shift from the current emphasis on face-to-face clinica l service delivery to the provision of a broader consultancy service i n the future.