Practicing Psychologists typically are trained and have expertise in the following

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY is the application of psychological theories, models and research to a range of psychological, psychiatric, mental health and developmental problems. Clinical psychologists provide a variety of services including assessment, therapy, and consultancy services. They work in child and/or adult and learning disability services where emotional, behavioural, psychiatric or developmental difficulties are addressed. To assess a client, a clinical psychologist may undertake a clinical assessment using a variety of methods including psychometric tests, interviews and direct observation of behaviour. Following a thorough assessment, a hypothesis is formulated as to the causes of the problem and the most appropriate intervention, therapy; counselling or advice is then offered. There are many specialist areas within clinical psychology.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY deals with the psychological and educational development of people in the education system. Their work can involve both assessment and intervention and they are also likely to be involved in training and research on related issues. Educational Psychologists carry out a wide range of tasks with the aim of enhancing children's learning and enabling teachers to become more aware of the social factors affecting teaching and learning. The work of an educational psychologist can be either directly with a child (assessing progress, counselling) or indirectly (through their work with parents, teachers and other professionals). Interventions might plan learning programmes, behaviour programmes and collaborative work with a teacher. Recommendations are then made to determine the most appropriate education provision for children experiencing educational difficulties.

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY is the scientific study of progressive psychological changes that occur in human beings as they age.  Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence and more recently, ageing and the entire life-span.
This field examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills, language acquisition and other neurodevelopment processes, problem solving abilities, conceptual understanding, moral understanding, identity formation and social development.

Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including educational psychology, clinical psychology, child psychopathology, social psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive development, comparative psychology and forensic developmental psychology.

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and children acquire and develop internal mental capabilities such as problem solving, memory and language.  Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language acquisition, knowledge, representation, memory, development of perceptual and motor skills, numerical operations and thinking.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYis the study of the nature and causes of human cognition with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they relate to each other. As the mind is the axis around which social behaviour pivots, social psychologists tend to study the relationship between minds and social behaviours.

ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGYinvolves the study of organizational influences including topics such as work motivation, job satisfaction, leadership, group and team processes, and organizational development and change.  By applying psychological expertise, they work to increase the organisation’s effectiveness. This can involve topics such as how to motivate staff, recruit the best people for the job or help individuals gain new skills. Organisational psychologists may also design or use psychometric tests, as a way of measuring people’s suitability for a particular role.

SERVICE DELIVERY BY PSYCHOLOGISTS

The main aim of service delivery by a practicing psychologist is then operationalised through assessment, intervention, support/consultancy and research. Because of the psychologist’s broad knowledge base across the lifespan, contributing to quality service developments for individuals and their families is a large part of the role of the psychologist in many organizations.

It is important to determine what, when, where and how intervention is appropriate from an individual and ecological perspective and all of the above needs to be viewed within ethical and human rights frameworks.

RESEARCH

Funders now require evidence based practice both from professionals and from service providers so as to target resources more efficiently and ensure that quality interventions are provided to service users. The scientist practitioner model employed in psychology contributes to further understanding of human behaviour and in turn ongoing evaluation and research contributes to enhancing practice.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOURAL SUPPORTS

Positive behavioural supports that are underpinned by different psychological theories and should include a thorough assessment of the person’s developmental, social, medical and environmental history, their strengths, abilities, interests, likes, preferences and dislikes and an assessment of the environment to take into account the physical, sensory, communication, social and emotional factors which may impact on and impede the individual's functioning. Any such analysis will necessarily include staff training and organisational factors which may impede or enhance the persons self worth and development and impact on the person's quality of life. (BPS, 2004).

SUMMARY

The Psychologist draws on a wide range of psychological theories that derive from developmental, social, behavioural, psychodynamic, cognitive, humanistic, biological, and ecological and in practice allows the practitioner to work at the individual, group and organizational levels.
 
For further information see www.psihq.ie
                                               www.bps.org.uk 

PSYCHOLOGY SERVICES IN ST. JOSEPH'S FOUNDATION.

Currently there are 5 Psychologists (1 Principal, 2 Senior Clinical, 1 Acting Senior Educational and 1 Assistant psychologist) who provide services from birth to old age across a range of settings and levels of intellectual disability.
The service also provides placements to Psychologists in Clinical Training on the Doctoral programmes in NUI Galway and University of Limerick.

SERVICES PROVIDED

0-6 AGE RANGE    EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICE

ASSESSMENT

The purpose of assessment is to gather information form a number of different sources and systematically appraise, synthesise and analyse it using psychological theory and knowledge of human development.  The basis of any assessment is to inform interventions, quality of life decisions with the supports required to meet them and provide services in a holistic manner.

Testing is ‘a specific standardised procedure that may form part of a broader assessment process (PSI, 2005) for psychological, occupational, clinical or educational purposes’.

Children in the 0-6 age range while being referred from the Forum meetings for the area are also referred for assessment and intervention from other sources e.g. Speech and Language therapists, preschools, and parents themselves who activate the assessment of need process.
The psychologist sees the child usually in the child’s home or in the preschool setting. Parents are always present and are partners in the assessment process as they are the experts on their child.

The purpose of the developmental assessment includes the following:

• Establish if the child has an intellectual disability/developmental delay
• Establish the extent of the child’s intellectual disability
• Provide a profile of the child’s strengths and needs which contribute to appropriate interventions.
• Contribute to differential diagnosis of different development disorders /delays e.g., autism, specific language impairment, attachment disorders, ADHD
• Make recommendations for optimal early educational placements
• Assessment of the capacity of the family to implement various programmes

INTERVENTION

The aim of intervention is to enhance the individual’s self development, promote skill acquisition, empower and advise on opportunities that improve quality of life.
Following the developmental assessment, a programme is drawn up for the parents to follow with their child and onward referrals are made to other members of the team as required
Intervention programmes are based on a comprehensive developmental assessment which includes the capacity of the family environment to understand and implement focused and embedded tasks to enhance their child’s potential.

As young children spend most of their lives in the care of their families, the need for children to be seen in naturalistic environments and the empowerment of parents to work effectively with their child is viewed as the cornerstone of a good early intervention service.

Interventions include:

• Provide information and advice to parents based on the knowledge base of developmental psychology and knowledge of the different syndromes and childhood disorders.
• Follow up sessions to support parents where necessary
• Ongoing developmental monitoring of the child’s development
• Advise to parents and other staff on developmental targets and how best to promote the child’s development
• Talking through expectations of the child at different transition times
• Working with families around issues such as stress and building positive relationships with their child
• Behavioural advice to parents and preschool staff
• Providing support around the transition to school.  This entails assessing the child’s overall needs and abilities in order to outline the child’s resource requirements to attend the school of their choice. If the child needs to attend a special school, an overall intellectual assessment is required for placement. As much of the support required is educational, psychologists are involved handover meetings with the schools and the drawing up of the IEP (Individual Education Plan) when the child commences in the school. During the first year in school, psychologists are involved in any adjustment problems in the school/classroom with a particular contribution to educational and behavioural issues as they arise.

The model implemented is community based in partnership with families.

6-18 AGE RANGE SCHOOL AGE
Currently, there is one psychologist assigned to the school age population which includes both children attending special school and those attending mainstream schools across North Cork.

This population consists of a number of categories

• Children attending mainstream school.  Over the past number of years, the number of children with intellectual disabilities and various syndromes e.g. Down Syndrome are attending their local schools.
• Children attending Holy Family Special school for children with moderate and severe levels of intellectual disability.
• Respite houses for children with autism and other complex needs that are provided by St. Joseph’s Foundation.

ASSESSMENT
Because educational provision continues to be based on the categorization in terms of levels of intellectual disability, all children need a full assessment before commencing primary school.

INTERVENTION
The Psychologist attends 1 IEP (Individual Educational Plan) per year due to the number of children in the system.

Assessment requests continue through the year for older children in mainstream and in the special school.  Behavioural and emotional difficulties are frequent referral problems and often require a lot of time from psychology depending on the complexity of the problem.

18+ AGE RANGE ADULTS

1 psychologist is employed fulltime to provide a variety of interventions for the adults who attend the day and residential service in St. Joseph’s Foundation.

Best practice guidelines recommend positive behaviour support plans for individuals with challenging behaviour. To be effective, each positive
behaviour support plan needs to be based on thorough functional assessments, implementation, continuous monitoring and support at an organisational level.

Work in this area includes individual casework, participation in service developments that are based on personal outcomes and quality of life issues for the person with an intellectual disability, and group work.

Needs assessments of adults include social, emotional, cognitive and behaviour using a variety of scales and assessment tools in order to provide a profile of strengths and service requirements.

AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS

While St. Joseph’s Foundation always provided some services for children and adults with autism, more recently, St. Joseph’s was given the remit of providing both a diagnostic service and intervention service for children in the 0-18 age group for North Cork.

This team consists of a Clinical Psychologist/Coordinator, Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Social Worker. (See link)

PSYCHOLOGY TEAM IN ST. JOSEPH’S FOUNDATION

Dr. Margaret Farrelly, Principal Psychologist
Area of work: Early intervention, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Ms. Marianne Gardiner, Acting Senior Educational Psychologist
Area of work: School age children in Holy Family Special school and mainstream schools in North Cork

Dr. Jennifer Luby, Clinical Psychologist