Message from the Chair
"The time is ripe for collaboration: A call for increased cooperation between research and practice"
Charlotte Johnston
This edition of the newsletter contains a wealth of information regarding various initiatives of the clinical section - including highlights of the executive midwinter meeting and the outstanding clinical offerings at the upcoming CPA convention in Ottawa. In line with these initiatives, I think that one of the greatest potentials of the clinical section is to provide information and a forum for discussion and action around issues of importance to all clinical psychologists in Canada. Our newsletter, web page (http://play.psych.mun.ca/~dhart/clinical/), and annual section meeting all provide venues for such discussions, and can act to facilitate collaborations among members with common interests or goals.
In the spirit of this "match making" potential of the clinical section, I propose that the time is ripe for increased collaborations between clinical research and clinical practice. And our section provides an ideal spring board for such joint endeavors. Perhaps now more than even, there are numerous and persistent pressures that drive the need for partnerships between research and application in clinical psychology. In clinical settings, phrases such as empirically supported or evidence-based practice, practice guidelines, clinical accountability, and cost effectiveness are increasingly common in statements describing service planning and evaluation. As the movement to empirically supported treatments has highlighted, there is a host of professional, economic, and clinical factors working in concert to urge service providers to base their practices to the greatest extent possible on the best research available. At the same time, much research on psychological treatments is increasingly criticized for its lack of ecological validity. A clear distinction is being drawn between efficacy evidence (often derived from lab-based, controlled trials with homogenous samples and strict protocols) and effectiveness evidence (treatment effects as demonstrated in clinical settings, with "real" clients). Pressures are mounting from funding agencies, journal reviewers, and from both researchers and practitioners (sometimes embodied in the same person) to increase our knowledge of the real world applicability and utility of psychological treatment techniques.It is this state of affairs that brings me to the conclusion that the time is ripe for those of us engaged primarily in clinical research and those of us engaged primarily in clinical practice to seek each other out. Both sides are "seeking a partner" in the joint enterprise of increasing the research base of clinical practice and the clinical utility of research. To stretch the "matchmaking" analogue to its maximum, what is needed is a wedding of clinical research questions and methods combined with actual clinical clientele in actual service settings to further clinical psychology.
Thus, I encourage each of us to consider seeking out new partners of this sort - and I am hopeful that the clinical section can provide a forum for this matching to occur. We could consider newsletter columns describing the experiences of those who have already "made a match," web-site listings of hopeful collaborators, and conference discussion sessions as a forum for exploration of shared interests. Comments and other suggestions are always welcome.