Clinical psychologists' roles

A survey of all clinical ps ychologists employed by eight health boards in the Republic of Ireland in 1994/1995 was conducted and the response rate was 54%. The views of the 67 respondents on their actual, desired and expected future work roles are described in this paper. There were clear differences between the actual roles of respondents and their desired roles. Respondents wanted more responsibilities in the areas of service planning and organisation; teaching and supervision; research and evaluation; and public relations. They wanted fewer face-to-face clinical responsibilities in the areas of child protection assessment and therapy; child psychiatric difficulties and child learning difficulties. They also wanted less routine administration.Differences between respondents’ actual roles and the roles they realistically expected they would be required to fulfil in the future were similar to those between their actual and desired role responsibilities with a few notable 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 content analysis of responses to openended questions underlined respondents’ view that the unique contribution of clinical psychology to the Health Boards may shift from the current emphasis on face-to-face clinical service delivery to the provision of a broader consultancy service in the future.