Clinical Associate (Psychology)
Encyclopedia
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, a Clinical Associate is a shortened designation for a Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology (CAAP). A Clinical Associate is a specialist regulated mental health professional with expertise in the delivery of Psychological interventions to adults, children and adolescents. Although CAAP is the appropriate professional designation a variety of other designations are also used, including Primary Care Psychologist
Primary Care Psychologist
A Primary Care Psychologist is a psychologist with specialist training in psychological disorders who is available for primary care services.Clinical Associates in Applied Psychology are a related New Ways of Working initiative in Scotland....

 and Clinical Associate Psychologist.

History & development

The new role of Clinical Associate was first introduced in 2005 after development between the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...

, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and key academic institutions and medical schools in Scotland. The role has been developed with an aim to increase access to primary care psychological services in two main specialities (child and adolescent and adult primary care). As such, two masters level MSc
MSC
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 applied training courses have been developed in each of these specialities. Each training courses requires trainees to complete a 1 year clinical residency
Residency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...

 in the appropriate speciality and an extensive academic component including training in clinical research, and the production of a masters level thesis.

Professional training and certification to practice

Candidates must have obtained a 2:1 degree or above in a BPS
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...

 accredited Psychology programme, have obtained clinical experience in the relevant specialities or in another related field, and demonstrated competence in scientific research.

Once admitted to training, Academic requirements (non-clinical) must be demonstrated to masters MSc
MSC
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 level, including the production of an original piece of research which will contribute to the scientific understanding of a relevant area. Requirements to practice are similar to that of Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...

 in the UK (within the appropriate speciality) and include demonstration of competence in clinical practice, assessment, diagnosis, formulation, treatment and research design and evaluation. While in training Clinical Associates receive a salary from the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...

.

Once qualified, clinical associates are licensed scientists, clinicians and mental health professionals, qualified to design, implement and evaluate research, and assess, diagnose and treat appropriate psychological disorders.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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