A Profile of Patients Seen by Fly-in Clinical Psychologists at a Non-Urban Facility and Implications for Training and Future Services

Abstract

With the serious mental health services deficits in non-urban communities, there is a need to evolve alternative approaches to facilitate access to care. Considering clinical psychology services are largely concentrated in the metropolitan areas, we describe a relatively unusual approach to providing services in an outlying area. The majority of patients attended to in this service are children and adolescents, and most patients have less than secondary-school education. The commonest diagnoses are mental retardation, mood and anxiety disorders, with the last two conditions mainly found in scholars and the unemployed. Fractured families are almost the norm, with four out of five children living with only one or no parents. Over half the patients are from families receiving a state grant. The majority of patients travel great distances to get to the clinical psychologists. The findings point to the need for clinical psychologists to seriously consider developing newer models for providing care, and the need for working outside of traditional approaches.