Moving forward health psychology practice : aims and work of a European Health Society (EHPS) task force

Abstract

Moving forward Health Psychology Practice: Aims and work of a European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) Task Force Sven Ingmar Andersson1, Angelos Kassianos2, Antonia Paschali3, Wim Nieuwenboom4 & Anne Marie Plass5 on behalf of the EHPS Task Force to Moving Forward Health Psychology 1Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 2 Department of Applied Health Research, University College London (UCL), London, UK 3National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece 4University of Applied Sciences, Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland 5Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center (UMG) Göttingen, Germany Background The aim of the Task Force is to stimulate further discussion of the development and application of Health Psychology practice into the society and to stimulate the process of moving towards a more globally recognized definition of Health Psychology through mapping and listing core competencies and skills. In a series of four articles presented by members of the Task Force in the European Health Psychologist (2017) on Health Psychology education, legislation, employability and cooperation with other disciplines in various countries represented in EHPS, multiple barriers were identified when applying Health Psychology into practice. These include language barriers, cooperation with other professionals, lack of funding, as well as variability in training, education and legislation between different countries. The Task Force continues its work to propose a global consensus in how Health Psychology is applied and what Health Psychologists do, through identifying (unique) core competencies and skills. These could support the development of international standards for Health Psychology education, and to legally regulate and standardize Health Psychology practice within the health care systems. Hence, the Task Force relies on National Delegates of the EHPS and other international experts. The ongoing work involves a broad exploration of core skills and compiling a list of competencies through investigating national documents, categorizing these as general, core and unique, and recruiting an Advisory Panel of experts reviewing the list and the suggested categorization. International psychological associations have an important role to ensure that Health Psychology practice is better globally defined, in order to increase visibility of Health Psychologists in the society.