Lately I've been thinking more about healthcare and the role psychologists increasingly play in various continuums of care. With increasing frequency psychologists have been added to the staffs of hospitals, regional care facilities, clinics, and group medical practices. Why?

It has been recognised that people are whole beings, not just bodies that have physical infections and broken bones. The mental and emotional features of a person contribute to his or her physical well-being. When I googled 'holistic healthcare', I got back 398,000 responses. The realisation that the mind is connected to the body is common knowledge.

Beyond that, medical professionals understand that psychologists can be very helpful in dealing with difficult patient processes. Often a consulting psychologist can meet with a patient and conduct a number of assessments that can be utilised by the attending physician to fine tune a patient's care plan.

For instance, in one case followed by the authors of Health Care Ethics for Psychologists: A Casebook (American Psychologist Association, 2004), a hospital staff was helped by a consulting psychologist to overcome their fears that proper patient follow-up care would not be given. They were sure the mother of a paralysed daughter would become the sole caregiver and be overwhelmed with the job; they were beginning to mount serious opposition to the discharge plan.

By a shift in focus to consider the family dynamics and ways in which that particular family attended to gender-specific responsibilities while also acquiring communal support among friends, the staff became encouraged to see that the needs of their patient would be met, even though not in exactly the way they might have imagined or preferred. Instead of a protracted conflict in which hospital staff would have been pitted against family for patient care, the consulting psychologist was able to help the staff affirm the family and contribute to their skill set.

Organisationally, consulting psychologists have been utilised to help multi-care clinical teams function cohesively, more effectively, and with increased efficiency. This has less to do with how a staff relates to patients than it does to how they relate to one another (even though how a multi-clinical staff relates to one another will have definite positive or negative ramifications with regard to their patients). A consulting psychologist with organisational development skills and experience can help hospital and clinic staff to identify both the systemic and interpersonal hindrances that constitute stumbling blocks to satisfying work. In such instances it is not necessary for a psychologist to have actually been a member of such a staff in the past (although that kind of experience would be helpful); what is most important is that a consulting psychologist understand systems, large and small group dynamics, and interpersonal relationships. That kind of experience can be gained in a number of ways.

These days, one of the best ways for organisational consultants to gain the expertise necessary to function effectively is to complete a certification in organizational development. To make that even better, they can augment such a basic course with certification in coaching. With these kinds of skills it is then possible to come into the flow of a given organisation, assess what is going on, and intervene to facilitate desired growth or change.

When I gained my experience in organizational work I was completing a dual residency in clinical and organization work, and I was supervised by a clinical psychologist who was teaching organisational dynamics at Washington State University, in the United States. However, it's not necessary for a person to go that route. Today, training organizations offer programs in both organizational development and coaching. These exist in Europe and the United States, so they often require travel on top of the usual expenses for tuition and texts.

Here in Bermuda, such travel has been the norm-either that or some kind of education by extension. However, that is changing somewhat. The Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda (GTIB) has been formed as a sister company to Benedict Associates to offer professionals of various sorts the opportunity to receive training both in organizational development and coaching from an international Core Faculty, with accreditation from the International Coach Federation (ICF). Full disclosure requires that I state that I am associated with both GTIB and Benedict, but there are other organizations that people could consult for this kind of training. The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland offers a very rigorous program for both organizational development and coaching. The Fielding Institute, located in California, also offers an ICF accredited program in coaching, and there are about nine different programs in North America (Canada and the USA) that offer ICF coaching programs.

Consulting psychologists are utilised with increasing frequency in health care settings, and that is a reasonable utilisation given the benefit that an organisational professional can provide. When that organisational professional also offers clinically relevant assessment and treatment planning skills, the impact multiplies. This has become such a trend among psychologists that specialties now exist in healthcare psychology.