Making a diagnosis

 Comfortably compliant: It's all about competence

Our Professional Advisory Service (PAS) has noticed a recent increase in queries from members about whether or not they are qualified to diagnose psychological disorders. This appears to be based on the idea that a psychologist without a particular area of endorsement may be excluded from providing a valid diagnosis; or that psychologists more broadly must instead rely on medical practitioners to provide a diagnosis. This isn’t the case.

It’s well established that psychologists are capable of diagnosing psychological disorders and this is determined not necessarily by area of endorsement but by the psychologist’s competence.   

In Australia, the profession of psychology is regulated by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act ('the National Law'), which is in force in each state and territory of Australia. All psychologists must be registered with the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) and must adhere to the APS Code of Ethics. The Code requires all psychologists work within the boundaries of their professional competence, including in relation to diagnostic skills.  

Standard B.1.2 (a) of the APS Code of Ethics states a psychologist should only provide psychological services within the boundaries of their professional competence. This includes but is not restricted to working within the limits of their education, training, supervised experience and appropriate professional experience, and (b) basing their services on the established knowledge of the discipline and profession of psychology. 

There are core capabilities expected of all psychologists. These include knowledge of psychopathology, psychological assessment and measurement, and diagnosis, including identifying psychological disorders using a recognised classification system. All psychologists are trained in the assessment of psychological disorders. 

Some psychologists have additional diagnostic competencies. Psychologists, like many medical specialties, may focus their work on specific areas such as autism spectrum disorders or eating disorders, and as a result will have very high-level skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.  

Given this, a psychologist who does not hold endorsement, for example as a clinical psychologist or neuropsychologist, may still have the necessary competence to diagnose a particular condition. 

Ultimately, it is for the psychologist to ensure they have sufficient training, experience and the competence to be able to diagnose a condition. We are aware some organisations may nominate that only psychologists with certain qualifications can make a diagnosis. The APS continues to work for recognition for all psychologists to complete assessment and diagnosis to the full scope of their competency. While this work is ongoing, it would be important for a psychologist to confer with the organisation about this prior to commencing a diagnostic assessment in case this has ramifications for the client’s ability to submit the report to the organisation. The client may need to be assessed by another psychologist whose qualifications are recognised by the agency.