Awareness of psychologists' qualifications, professional associations, andregistration amongst general medical practitioners, psychologists, and their clients

A sample of 307 respondents consisting of 83 general medical practitioners (GP), 100 patients of medical practitioners (P-GP), 61 psychologists (PSY), and 63 patients of psychologists (P-PSY) were surveyed concerning the fact ors involved in the selection of a psychologist, and their knowledge and co mprehension of psychologists' qualifications, professional associations, an d registration requirements. Respondents reported that knowledge of psychol ogists' specialisation, qualifications, experience, professional membership , and registration were important in selection and referral. Overall 58.3% of respondents did not know the qualifications of the psychologist they wer e seeing or referring to (P-PSY 68%, GP 76%, PSY 28%). Most patients and pr ofessionals reported difficulty in understanding the abbreviated degree tit les of psychologists (P-GP 93%, PSY 81%, GP 82%, PSY 39%) and few responden ts considered that a list of APS-approved degrees were legitimate psycholog ist qualifications. Similarly, very few respondents were able to comprehend the abbreviations for the names of professional associations to which psyc hologists frequently belong (P-GP 6%, P-PSY 10%, GP 17%, PSY 43%). All grou ps expressed a strong preference for psychologists' qualifications and thei r memberships of professional associations to be provided in plain English (P-GP 94%, P-PSY 79%, GP 92%, PSY 66%). In contrast, virtually all responde nts were able to recognise abbreviations for the most common degree titles of a number of other prominent professions (PGP 92%, P-PSY 93%, GP 99%, PSY 99%). Only a small majority of respondents knew that practising psychologi sts were required by law to be registered (P-GP 28%, P-PSY 65%, GP 64%, PSY 95%). The implications of the results are discussed in terms of the need f or the universities and the Australian Psychological Society to simplify th e number and naming of accredited psychology degrees, and the need for more complete information to be made available in plain English to clients, ref erral agents, registration boards, and health insurance bodies.