The decision by the Department of Health and Wellness to cut the psychology internship program (Aug. 14 story) is extremely short-sighted.
Psychology interns are highly skilled by the time they begin their internships, with five to seven years of graduate training after an undergraduate degree. Like medical residents, they provide direct patient care as part of their internship training. At a salary of $27,500 per year (considerably below the national median of $32,000 for psychology interns), these health-care trainees are a bargain.
In the 1990s, the Department of Health took the visionary step to provide provincial funding for students completing the compulsory one-year internship in the final year of their PhD in clinical psychology. They saw this as a tool to recruit and retain doctoral-level psychologists in the province, and it has been spectacularly successful.
As a former director of clinical training responsible for the internship program at the IWK, I can attest to the calibre of psychologists in training that either stayed in Nova Scotia (if they were completing their PhD at Dalhousie) or were attracted to Nova Scotia from other universities across Canada to complete their internship.
Many of these psychologists chose to stay here, and are now leaders across the province in evidence-based care for individuals with autism and developmental disorders, mental-health issues and physical health concerns, including diabetes, chronic pain and brain injuries. They work in public health care, private practice and university settings and are researchers, clinicians and educators.
A cursory search indicated there are currently six vacancies in health-care settings in Nova Scotia for PhD psychologists.
All three interns at the IWK last year filled full-time vacancies when they graduated. How many vacancies will there be in five years if our internship programs do not survive?
As Nova Scotians, we should be proud that all psychology internship programs in Nova Scotia are accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association. Accreditation ensures training excellence and attracts the best students. Furthermore, all accredited PhD programs in clinical psychology in Canada require that their students complete accredited internships.
As a site visitor for CPA accreditation, I know that stable funding and support for internship programs is a key standard that is carefully considered. With the internship programs at the QEII and in the Valley due for re-accreditation in 2016, accreditation may be in jeopardy.
Uncertainty about funding will also discourage excellent students from across Canada from applying to Nova Scotia internships this coming fall, in time for a very competitive matching process in February 2016 for internships beginning in September 2016.
Rapid reinstatement of funding is critical to prevent erosion of the internship programs in the province.
As a recent “Open Minds” series in the Globe and Mail asserted, “We have the evidence: why aren’t we providing evidence-based care? (May 22, 2015) This article states that psychologists are well trained and prepared to play an important role in a renewed health-care system. We can no longer afford not to provide evidence-based care for high-prevalence disorders such as depression and anxiety that account for 80 per cent of all mental-health disorders.
Family physicians are often left to provide “counselling” for depression and anxiety when they have neither the time nor the training to do so, at great cost to the health-care system. The cost to society of not treating these disorders in a timely and effective manner is far too high.
Psychologists are prepared to provide evidence-based care to help individuals with mental and physical health conditions to reduce impairment and improve quality of life, ultimately reducing health costs.
The $220,000 annual cost for this program is an investment in the future mental and physical health of Nova Scotians. It is time for the Department of Health and Wellness to reconsider their decision, and quickly.
Joan Backman, PhD, psychologist, Halifax