APA’s 2021 Survey of Health Service Psychologists collects key information about the nation’s health service psychologists, including who they are, where they work, and what they do.
Two key areas of interest of the 2021 survey are populations served and cultural responsiveness, which examine the characteristics of health service psychologists providing services to diverse groups of populations. Here are some key findings from the survey.
- Health service psychologists are increasingly diverse. 25% of early career health service psychologists are people of color, compared to 9% of health service psychologists in late senior career stage.
- Health service psychologists work in diverse settings. Including individual solo practices (47%), independent group practices (12%), hospitals (11%), and organized human service settings (8%), among others.
- Psychologists’ workloads increased during the pandemic. 38% of psychologists were working more than they did before the pandemic, and 16% of psychologists were planning to decrease practice hours for the next 12 months, creating the potential for workforce capacity concerns.
- Psychologists who serve marginalized populations are more likely to decrease their hours going forward, exacerbating unmet needs from marginalized and underserved populations. Psychologists who frequently serve marginalized populations, including Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations, American Indian/Alaska Native populations, immigrant populations, Asian populations, populations living with chronic pain, populations living with chronic illnesses, and gay, lesbian, or bisexual populations, expressed an intention to reduce practice hours at higher rates.
- Most psychologists are well prepared to provide services to diverse population groups, but gaps persist. Most psychologists rated their knowledge of providing services to diverse population groups as moderate. However, there may be gaps in psychologists’ preparation to work with marginalized or underserved communities. On a scale of 1 (not at all prepared) to 5 (extremely well prepared), psychologists’ cultural responsiveness ratings were lowest for the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations (1.9), American Indian/Alaska Native populations (2.0), homeless populations (2.1), and immigrant populations (2.6).