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Potentialcounselorsandpsychologistsare not alone; career crisis is an equal opportunity employer. Airline pilots were occupationally hazed in the late 1970’s with deregulation of the airline industry. Future airline flight-engineers, who had for decades immersed themselves in study and training; all the while accepting low-level positions, reached their destination only to find that they had touched down in a tornado. From 1978-2002, nine of the major employing airlines (Eastern, Midway, Braniff, Pan Am, Continental, America West Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and TWA) as well as over 100 mid-level airlines filed for bankruptcy. Entry-level salary for new hires nose-dived to a monthly amount so low that dry-cleaning the pilot’s uniform was a hardship.
The recent decade has continued to initiate the educated and hungry. Law school students graduating with up to a quarter of a million dollars in debt and hopes soaring high as eagles, continue to serve up coffee at Starbucks and work retail. The reason? Internships are nowhere to be found. In fact, according to both theNew York Timesand theLos Angeles Timesthere are over 20 class actions lawsuits filed across the nation charging law schools with misrepresentations regarding employment promises as well as implied internships.
It seems to be a fact of academic life that if a career takes great dedication, a good chunk of time and significant monetary commitments; socio-economic forces will somehow culminate to rear an ugly, discouraging head.
The Match: A Dim History
In his article, “Intern Gap Frustrates Clinicians in Training”award-winning New York Times journalist,Joseph Bergermasterfully describes what the “Match” is and what the situation has been in the past;
“They call it ‘the match.’ Every year, thousands of graduate students in clinicalpsychologypick the hospitals and clinics where they would like to do yearlong internships. They rank their choices. The internship programs also rank the applicants.
A computer algorithm then digests the lists in an attempt to link mutually desired applicants and programs. But in recent years the process has broken down: In psychology, there are simply not enough internships to go around…Students who do not match must hunt for unaccredited internships, positions that can hobble their careers. Almost half end up without an internship at all and must try again the next year.”
Doctoral students without internships or even some with unaccredited ones are left without the ability to be licensed and therefore unable to practice their profession. In 2011 Dr. Melba J.T. Vasquez, PhD, ABPP, then president of the American Psychological Association delineated the situation in her article, “The Internship Crisis: Strategies and Solutions;”
Particularly concerning is the fact that 937 students — or 24 percent — who participated in the match did not get matched to a position in Phase I of the match, while only 256 positions remained unfilled. Further, of the 4,199 who registered to take part in the 2011 match, 352 withdrew or did not submit rankings.
These results are unacceptable."
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The Federal Factor
As if the situation was not already challenging enough; recently implemented federal mandates are literally a calling of the APA to arms.The Affordable Care Acthas guaranteed that medical insurers must provide10 essential benefits, one of which is“mental health and substance abuse disorder services, including behavioral health treatment.”This particular benefit presents state and local providers with a requirement they are not prepared to meet. While the reality will have institutions of higher learning doing back-flips; it presents an additional demand with regards to internships.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services(USDHHS) has stated that The Affordable Health Care Act expands “mental health” and “substance use disorder” benefits for 62 million Americans.Four specialists at the USDHHS published anarticleregarding the new implementations. Quoting them;
“The Affordable Care Act will provide one of the largest expansions of mental health and substance use disorder coverage in a generation. Beginning in 2014 under the law, all new small group and individual market plans will be required to cover ten Essential Health Benefit categories, including mental health and substance use disorder services, and will be required to cover them at parity with medical and surgical benefits.”
-Kirsten Beronio, Rosa Po, Laura Skopec, Sherry Glied
Light at the End of the Internship Tunnel
“The American Psychological Association (APA) and its student arm — theAmerican Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS)— have been working to find solutions to the mismatch between the number of qualified graduate students and the number of available internship slots. Now, it looks as if their efforts may be paying off. More students matched to internships this year compared with last year (see below for the latest numbers). But the even better news is that solutions are in the works to address the internship crisis in ways that are expected to boost match rates even more.”
According to Watson, the industry’s top 8 associations and councils have joined hands to restructure the Match system. The following entities are participating:
Additionally, the APA is putting their money where their mouth is. In 2012, $3 million were made available via an Internship Stimulus Program to develop more accredited programs.
The formerly dark and cloudy Match process is now looking forward to a bright and sunny future. While other disciplines and professions may not garner industry support for upcoming professionals; the field of psychology has taken a pro-active and zealous approach, thus insuring that when lawyers, pilots and the like need their services, it will actually be there and be qualified.
2021 US Bureau of Labor Statistics job market trends and salary figures formarriage and family therapistsandmental health, behavioral, and substance abuse counselorsare based on national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed June 2023.
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