Psychology Training for Rural Tasmania: Process, Progress and Potential!

There have been recent changes to training pathways for the psychology profession in Australia. Traditional training pathways have involved a four year undergraduate degree plus either a two year industry training program ('4+2’ pathway) or a two year post graduate program (Clinical Masters). Recent administration requirement changes, however, with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) have seen a decline in 4+2 pathway opportunities and an increase in demand for postgraduate training positions. Despite the overall growth in the psychology workforce, workforce shortages are still prevalent in rural and remote Australia, where the need is greatest. State wide collaboration involving Psychology, Rural Health and Rural Clinical School at the University of Tasmania, in conjunction with government, non-government and private sector psychology has seen an increase in capacity to offer rural-based psychology placements for Clinical Masters students. This increased capacity has resulted in new graduates successfully gaining employment in North and North West Tasmania. In 2015 UTAS commenced a new training pathway called the '5+1'. The 5+1 pathway involves graduates undertaking a fifth year of study then engaging in a one year supervised internship in an organisation to meet requirements to become a registered psychologist. The 5+1 pathway represents an appealing alternative for organisations particularly based in rural Tasmania to recruit and support new psychology graduates. This presentation will report on two aspects of Tasmanian psychology workforce training. First, we will present an overview of the UTAS post graduate psychology training program and how rural placement opportunities have impacted on rural psychology workforce outcomes over the past three years. Second, we will present an overview of the new 5+1 pathway and how this pathway presents an exciting opportunity for Tasmanian organisations to grow the psychology workforce state wide.