Associate psychologist training programme
A project to develop a new associate psychologist training programme, focused on improving people’s access to psychological services and expanding the psychology workforce.
Pātiki and Waharua Kōpito patterns
About the associate psychologist training programme
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora working with the tertiary education sector and the New Zealand Psychologists Board to support the development of a new associate psychologist training programme, which will help increase access to psychology services and expand the psychologist workforce in mental health and addiction services.
It aims to establish a training programme beginning with at least 20 associate psychologists in the first year, with the first cohort of students expected to start their one-year postgraduate study in 2026.
It will provide a new training pathway for psychology undergraduate students who want to work in mental health and addiction services as an alternative to existing postgraduate clinical training programmes.
The Request For Proposals for funding to develop this new training programme opened on 1 November 2024 on the New Zealand Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS).
Development of Post-graduate training for Associate Psychologist workforce - GETS.govt.nz
Health NZ is also working with the New Zealand Psychologists Board (NZPB), the regulator for the psychology workforce, on the development of the scope of practice, competences and accreditation process for the associate psychologist.
While guidance on the role and training is still developing, the vision is that associate psychologists will be registered health professionals with regulatory oversight from the NZPB.
The associate psychologist will hold a postgraduate qualification and, under the supervision of a registered psychologist, will support and enhance psychological care within a service or team, working with tāngata whai ora who are accessing services.
This new role will allow capacity for registered psychologists to focus on more complex cases and use their full scope of practice.
It will help ease New Zealand’s psychology workforce acute shortage, which currently means many people must wait for psychological services or miss out altogether.
An Associate Psychologist Advisory Group has been established to provide advice and guidance on the development of this training pathway to Health NZ’s project team.
This 12-person group has representatives from across the sector, including tertiary education organisations (TEO), the NZPB as regulator, New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, New Zealand Psychological Society, secondary and primary mental health and addiction sectors, NGOs, Māori psychology, Pacific psychology, and lived experience within mental health and addictions.