Calls to pay trainee psychologists for frontline Covid-19 work

Mark Smyth - Senior Clinical Psychologist, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Picture: Dave Meehan

There have been fresh calls to pay trainee counselling psychologists who are working on the frontline during the pandemic but who don't receive a salary during the three years it takes to secure a doctorate. 

The past president of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Mark Smyth, said the Covid-19 crisis highlighted the situation faced by trainee counselling psychologists and educational psychologists, who for the three years they undertake a doctorate do not receive any pay, while trainee clinical psychologists — who do similar work — are paid and receive a proportion of their fees.