TY - JOUR
T1 - Competencies unique to clinical neuropsychology
T2 - A consensus statement of educators, practitioners, and professional leaders in Australia
AU - Wong, Dana
AU - Pestell, Carmela
AU - Oxenham, Vincent
AU - Stolwyk, Renerus
AU - Anderson, Jacqueline
AU - on behalf of the Australian Neuropsychology Alliance of Training and Practice Leaders (ANATPL)
N1 - Funding Information:
Despite this recognition by AHPRA, several threats exist to the profession of clinical neuropsychology in Australia. First, funding for training programs for areas of practice endorsement, including clinical neuropsychology, is inadequate. Traditionally, psychology training in Australia has been largely publicly funded by the federal government. Unlike undergraduate psychology training, for decades the cost of providing postgraduate psychology training has been greater than the amount provided for this training by successive governments. This mismatch occurs because high quality advanced training is necessarily teaching intensive and requires a substantial number of hours of student placements (at least 1000). These placement opportunities are limited in number due to the reduced availability of PsyBA-accredited supervisors (senior practitioners). Consequently, training providers are unable to “scale up” intake numbers to make training a cost-effective proposition. Rather, publicly funded universities have continued to offer this training at a loss, in recognition of the important role professional psychologists with advanced training and competencies play in society, and because advanced psychology training as a professional pathway remains extremely popular with students and encourages their enrollment at the undergraduate level.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024/1/2
Y1 - 2024/1/2
N2 - Objective: To delineate the unique role of clinical neuropsychologists in contemporary Australian clinical practice and present a comprehensive consensus-based set of clinical neuropsychology competencies to guide and standardize the training of clinical neuropsychologists. Method: Twenty-four national representatives of the clinical neuropsychology profession (71% female, M = 20.1, SD = 8.1 years clinical practice), including tertiary-level educators, senior practitioners and members of the executive committee of the peak national neuropsychology body, formed the Australian Neuropsychology Alliance of Training and Practice Leaders (ANATPL). Informed by a review of existing international competency frameworks and Australian Indigenous psychology education frameworks, a provisional set of competencies for clinical neuropsychology training and practice were developed, followed by 11 rounds of feedback and revisions. Results: The final set of clinical neuropsychology competencies achieved full consensus and falls into three broad categories: generic foundational (i.e. general professional psychology competencies applied to clinical neuropsychology); specific functional (i.e. specific to clinical neuropsychology areas of practice) competencies relevant to all career stages; and functional competencies relevant to advanced career stages. Competencies span a number of knowledge and skill-based domains including neuropsychological models and syndromes, neuropsychological assessment, neuropsychological intervention, consultation, teaching/supervision and management/administration. Conclusion: The competencies reflect recent advances in the field of clinical neuropsychology, including expanded intervention competencies, culturally-informed neuropsychological practice and use of emerging technologies. They will be available as a resource to guide curriculum development for clinical training, as well as providing a useful framework for professional practice and advocacy more broadly within the discipline of clinical neuropsychology.
AB - Objective: To delineate the unique role of clinical neuropsychologists in contemporary Australian clinical practice and present a comprehensive consensus-based set of clinical neuropsychology competencies to guide and standardize the training of clinical neuropsychologists. Method: Twenty-four national representatives of the clinical neuropsychology profession (71% female, M = 20.1, SD = 8.1 years clinical practice), including tertiary-level educators, senior practitioners and members of the executive committee of the peak national neuropsychology body, formed the Australian Neuropsychology Alliance of Training and Practice Leaders (ANATPL). Informed by a review of existing international competency frameworks and Australian Indigenous psychology education frameworks, a provisional set of competencies for clinical neuropsychology training and practice were developed, followed by 11 rounds of feedback and revisions. Results: The final set of clinical neuropsychology competencies achieved full consensus and falls into three broad categories: generic foundational (i.e. general professional psychology competencies applied to clinical neuropsychology); specific functional (i.e. specific to clinical neuropsychology areas of practice) competencies relevant to all career stages; and functional competencies relevant to advanced career stages. Competencies span a number of knowledge and skill-based domains including neuropsychological models and syndromes, neuropsychological assessment, neuropsychological intervention, consultation, teaching/supervision and management/administration. Conclusion: The competencies reflect recent advances in the field of clinical neuropsychology, including expanded intervention competencies, culturally-informed neuropsychological practice and use of emerging technologies. They will be available as a resource to guide curriculum development for clinical training, as well as providing a useful framework for professional practice and advocacy more broadly within the discipline of clinical neuropsychology.
KW - Clinical neuropsychology
KW - clinical training
KW - competencies
KW - neuropsychological assessment
KW - neuropsychological intervention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153507970&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13854046.2023.2200035
DO - 10.1080/13854046.2023.2200035
M3 - Article
C2 - 37073481
AN - SCOPUS:85153507970
SN - 1385-4046
VL - 38
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - The Clinical Neuropsychologist
JF - The Clinical Neuropsychologist
IS - 1
ER -
