Psychology's Scope of Practice and Role
in Interprofessional Healthcare

Role of Psychology in Interdisciplinary Health Care

Psychology shares with other health care disciplines the ideal of health for all individuals in society and the ideal of promoting the welfare of the public. The practice of psychology covers a broad spectrum of services including: teaching, evaluation, measurement, developmental, clinical, consulting, educational, gerontology, rehabilitation, experimental, psychopharmacological, and health psychology. Accordingly, the role of Psychology in interdisciplinary health care includes:

• Direct care to patients in need of psychological diagnosis and treatment;
• Consultation based on comprehensive and differential evaluation of psychological factors in collaboration with colleagues in other health care fields;
• Sharing knowledge contributed by the specialties in psychology with other disciplines;
• Establishing goals and objectives for both curative and preventive care of individual and group behavioral dysfunctions;
• Liaison with other health care disciplines in collaborative and interdisciplinary endeavors in promoting more efficient health care to individuals, families and groups;
• Dedication to the educational, scientific, and professional contributions of psychologists in understanding the etiology, promotion and maintenance of both physiologic and behavioral health;
• The prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of psychological dysfunction and mental illness; the goal being the improvement of the health care system and the formulation of health policy; and
• Promotion of standards of applications of scientific psychological knowledge to public and governmental issues.