Prevalence,Prediction, and Prevention of Psychologist Misconduct

Studies of psychologist misconduct generally focus on unethical sexual behaviours. In contrast, the following study reports on all complaints by the public against psychologists reported to the New South Wales Psychologists Registration Board over a 4‐year period. There were 248 independent notifications of misconduct about 224 registered psychologists, out of a total sample of 9,489 registered psychologists. The most frequent type of misconduct reported was in relation to poor communication standards (35.5%). Other complaints were in relation to professional incompetency (16.5%), poor report writing (14.1%), poor business practices (12.5%), boundary violations (9.7%), poor character (5.6%), registration status (3.2%), impairment (1.6%), and the inappropriate use of specialist titles (1.2%). Males were 2.5 times more likely to have a misconduct complaint made about them than females. Senior highly qualified psychologists attracted a greater number of complaints, but these were generally of a less serious nature. Over a 30‐year career, about 20 out of every 100 psychologists can expect to receive a complaint from the public, and two will receive a serious misconduct complaint that might lead to deregistration. Strategies for preventing malpractice arising from these results include regular peer consultation, developing quality practise standards, and maintaining professional boundaries.     

The controversy over pastoral care of parents after a stillbirth

Studies published in the last few years have suggested that the current practice in hospital obstetric units of encouraging parents to spend time with, hold, and even care for their stillborn fetus or baby may be deleterious to them. Rather than helping to allay grieving and successfully bring mourning to closure, mothers who had increasing levels of contact with the body of their stillborn baby were incrementally more likely to suffer depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in their next pregnancy and to have difficulty with attachment to their next child. These findings parallel observations from meta-analyses that question the efficacy of single-session debriefing (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) after psychological trauma in preventing the later emergence of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although not conclusive, these initial studies support the urgent need for further research to allow evidence-based pastoral care for those whose pregnancies end in stillbirth and loss. Given this much uncertainty about the risks posed by contact with her stillborn baby, mothers who do not chose to see their dead infants should not be persuaded to do so on the grounds of beneficence.