Kilkenny the venue for launch of trainee psychologist initiative in South-East

Kilkenny was the venue for a significant gathering of HSE healthcare professionals focused on psychology services this week.

Organised by HSE/South East Community Healthcare (SECH), the occasion doubled as a research symposium for colleagues across psychology services in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford and as an official launch of a Trainee Psychologist Initiative between SECH and University College Dublin.

SECH Psychology Services were joined on the day in the Springhill Hotel, Kilkenny by their partners on both the UCD Educational Psychology Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programmes.

The HSE/South East Community Healthcare has a long history of working with UCD, specifically the Clinical Psychology Doctorate to support and fund a number of trainees. As part of this, all funded trainees have a HSE contract and the HSE also funds a large portion of the trainee’s university fees.

SECH, in close collaboration with UCD, also provide a coordinated approach to the trainees’ placements that reflect each trainee’s individual learning needs as they evolve across the three-year programme. The result of this collaboration is highly qualified and highly skilled psychologists ready to work in the HSE once their training is complete.

To date, there have been seven HSE/South East Community Healthcare (SECH) funded trainees on the National Trainee Psychologist Initiative (three funded via Disability Services and four via Primary Care).

Following the launch of the National Trainee Psychologist Initiative and through collaboration with the UCD Educational Psychology Doctoral Programme, this will now increase by 15 additional funded trainees over the coming years.

Five newly funded trainees have already commenced in September 2023 and UCD and SECH are currently working to select the next five trainees for September 2024. A further five will be commence in September 2025, bringing the overall total number of SECH funded trainees to 22. This is a tripling of the funded trainee places.

The second part of the occasion in Kilkenny provided an opportunity for psychology services to share their expertise and interest in the area of research and its links to clinical practice. Through a variety of poster presentations and a number of speakers, SECH psychology services shared their research achievements across a wide range of research topics, demonstrating the importance of using research to inform clinical practice.

In early 2023, each HSE region through their Chief Officer committed to a national increase in Psychology Trainees of 74% by September 2025, starting from September 2023.