An Unconscionable Embarrassment quote conitinued.

A new report in the APS journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Vol. 9, No. 2)by Tim Baker, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Richard McFall, Indiana University; and Varda Shoham, University of Arizona, exposes the sorry state of clinical practice today and calls for a new accreditation system to force the field into correcting its course.

APS Past President Walter Mischel, who wrote the editorial for the PSPI report, calls the disconnect between science and practice “an unconscionable embarrassment” and “a case of professional cognitive dissonance with heavy costs.” The widening gap between clinical practice and scientific progress in psychology has serious consequences not only for the profession but for the mental health consumer as well. The prevalence of mental health disorders in this country has nearly doubled in the past 20 years. Both the demand and costs for health and mental health care have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Yet these patients rarely receive treatments that have been rigorously tested and shown to be both therapeutic and cost-effective. For example, psychological interventions have been effectively coupled with medications in smoking cessation programs, but these treatments are often unavailable. Similarly, family-focused therapy is a powerful tool in schizophrenia treatment and exposure therapy in the treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder, yet many practicing therapists fail to use these beneficial techniques in their practices.