Jaffe Madeleine, Hopkins Liza, Halperin Stephen
Mental and Addiction Health, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia.
Discov Ment Health. 2025 May 1;5(1):65. doi: 10.1007/s44192-025-00196-4.
Workforce shortages pose a significant barrier to meeting the mental health needs of Australians. This study sought to explore the factors contributing to the recruitment and retention of public (salaried) psychologists and psychologists working as private practitioners within a public mental health service in metropolitan Melbourne. The project involved an online survey of staff and semi-structured interviews. The study found that both private and salaried psychologists identified a number of reasons as to why they were attracted to working in this setting compared with the higher salaries available in full-fee paying private practice. Issues included working with a specific cohort of clients, support of intake and administration teams, flexible working hours, teamwork, the location of the service, the profile of the organisation, and not having to pay room rent or advertise. Salaried staff highlighted the team culture and access to other clinicians for informal discussions as important factors, while private practitioners within the public mental health service most commonly identified financial concerns, including remuneration and failure to attend/cancellations as the biggest challenges. Lack of income was the most commonly cited reason for clinicians' decisions to leave public mental health. Private practitioners within this setting identified the absence of supervision and professional development, feelings of isolation and lack of team culture as significant deterrents. In sum, numerous issues influence the decisions of psychologists to work in public mental health services rather than, or as well as holding private roles. Public health services need to recognise these and ameliorate identified challenges if they are to attract and retain an adequate psychological workforce.
劳动力短缺对满足澳大利亚人的心理健康需求构成了重大障碍。本研究旨在探讨影响墨尔本大都市一家公共心理健康服务机构招聘和留住公立（受薪）心理学家以及私人执业心理学家的因素。该项目包括对员工进行在线调查和进行半结构化访谈。研究发现，与全额收费的私人执业相比，无论是私人执业心理学家还是受薪心理学家都指出了一些他们被吸引到该机构工作的原因。这些因素包括与特定客户群体合作、接纳和行政团队的支持、灵活的工作时间、团队合作、服务地点、机构形象，以及无需支付房租或进行广告宣传。受薪员工强调团队文化以及能够与其他临床医生进行非正式讨论是重要因素，而公共心理健康服务机构中的私人执业心理学家最常提到的财务问题，包括薪酬以及患者未就诊/取消预约，是最大的挑战。收入不足是临床医生决定离开公共心理健康领域最常被提及的原因。在此环境中的私人执业心理学家认为缺乏监督和专业发展、感到孤立以及缺乏团队文化是重要的阻碍因素。总之，众多问题影响着心理学家决定在公共心理健康服务机构工作，而非担任私人执业角色，或者两者兼顾。如果公共卫生服务机构想要吸引和留住足够的心理专业人员，就需要认识到这些问题并改善已发现的挑战。
