David Cullinane
Question:1475. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health his plans to expand the current national pilot assistant psychology programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43117/21]
View answerThursday, 9 September 2021
Questions (1475)
Written answers
The role of Assistant Psychologist supports the provision of psychology services in primary care settings, enabling delivery of early and cost-effective interventions for children and adolescents, and is key to delivering a “stepped care” model in which service users receive the level of required support and/or intervention appropriate to their assessed need.
The establishment of 114 paid Assistant Psychologist posts within HSE Psychology Services on a pilot basis was a key action in the HSE's National Service Plan for 2016, with the posts coming on-stream in a phased basis during 2017, and funding of €3.4m being provided for implementation of this important initiative.
The employment of Assistant Psychologists in HSE Primary Care Psychology services is a time-limited pilot project and is being independently evaluated. All Assistant Psychologist posts were due to complete their contracts by the end of July 2020 when the evaluation was originally due to be finalised. However, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary for this evaluation process to be paused during 2020 before being extended to the end of September 2021.
The Assistant Psychology programme has subsequently been extended again to the end of December 2021 to allow the programme to continue to deliver for clients and to provide some degree of certainty to those currently in post. A decision on the long-term future of the grade will be made following submission and consideration of the final evaluation report.