Professional practice

April 2014 | Dr Louise Roufeil

The practice of psychology has changed dramatically over the last decade with the growth in the provision of psychological services that are funded by a third party (i.e., services paid for by an organisation rather than the client). This includes psychological services provided through...

February 2014

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) is insurance for professionals to cover legal costs or claims for damages to clients arising from an act, omission or breach of professional duty in the course of conducting their work. In 2010, the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) introduced the...

February 2014 | Mick Symons MAPS, Manager Member Services and Ethics APS National Office

The introduction of national registration for psychologists in 2010 brought in various changes to the titles that psychologists can use to describe themselves when providing psychological services. The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (‘National Law’) governing national...

February 2014

The Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) recently announced that random audits of psychologists have commenced to ensure they have met registration standards. The audits are being conducted by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) throughout 2014. The audits are...

December 2013 | Dr Andrea Phelps, Dr Lisa Dell and Professor David Forbes

The newly released Australian Guidelines for the Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder provide an updated and revised version of the Australian guidelines which were released in 2007. Over the past six years there has been ongoing research, investigating both...

December 2013

Undertaking psychological assessment of students who are experiencing academic challenges is a significant part of the work of psychologists who provide services in schools. This work is integral to schools’ primary aim of facilitating their students’ academic achievement and is...

December 2013 | Elisabeth Shaw, Heather Bancroft, Associate Professor Jacques Metzer, Mick Symons

Ethical dilemmas are an inevitable aspect of psychological practice because of the often emotionally-charged context and the central trusting relationship between the psychologist and client that has inherent power inequalities. There will be many situations throughout psychologists&rsquo...

December 2013 | Dr David Hawes

It might seem that the DSM-5 revisions to the diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) are all in the fine print. However, as subtle as they may appear, these revisions stem from some of the most noteworthy shifts in models of child psychopathology that have...

October 2013 | Professor Tracey Wade

Discontent with the DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders has been expressed for many years. The major area of contention related to the fact that a large proportion (perhaps the majority) of children, adolescents and adults seeking treatment were classified as ‘eating disorder not...