An outline of Psycholgy for Health and Social Staff

All those who practice helping professions –from social workers to physicians, from educational staff to teachers– feel that they need to have some psychological competences. But everyone believes to slightly be a psychologist. There is the idea that with good intentions and some experience, psychological competence is acquired, and that psychology is the refinement of human sensitivity. On the contrary, Psychology is part of Science today; in fact it is a group of sciences, each of them specific, with its own method, its own techniques and its own training programmes. How the required scientific formation might be acquired then? To get a Psychology degree is the main route, but some psychological competence is necessary for a variety of health professionals: physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, educational staff, social workers, midwives and a wider range of health workers operating in the health care system, education, as well as in industry and organisations. The three-year degrees, indeed numerous, that have been founded, and not only in the socio-health field, officially include in their curricula two or more psychological sciences. Among these Clinical Psychology stands out.
The book is based on Clinical Psychology, above all, bearing in mind the applicability thereof in various professional fields. At the same time, though, it provides a base of general psychology and methodology, so that its applicability does not risk to become a superficial accumulation of information without the due scientific bases. Human psyche is complex; there are not any “recipes” of intervention; a basic training just as complex is required to avoid the illusions of common sense.
Being the result of four years of work made by the author and his collaborators of the Clinical Psychology Department at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Brescia, this book is, on the national scene, the first extensive book that addresses the necessary training of helping professionals: it is addressed to students of various university programmes, but also and perhaps above all to health professionals. The book completes the insufficient scientific training that those who were trained according to previous regulations have. As a work of reference, this book has a detailed index organised by themes.