Clinical and Health Psychology

Clinical psychology and health psychology are specialisations within Psychology at Eastern Health and work within both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Clinical psychologists have specialist training in the assessment and diagnosis of major mental illnesses and psychological problems. Clinical psychologists are trained in the delivery of a range of techniques and therapies with demonstrated effectiveness in treating mental health disorders. They are specialists in applying psychological theory to solve complex clinical psychology problems requiring individually tailored interventions in areas such as perinatal mental health, rehabilitation, geriatric medicine, oncology and palliative care.

Health psychologists specialise in developing education and behaviour change programs to help people to recover from or self-manage chronic illness, trauma, injury or disability. Psychological treatments also reduce problems that can accompany and contribute to illness and injury, such as chronic pain, addiction, poor sleep, eating problems, anxiety, depression and emotional reactions such as anger and grief. Health psychologists help people to cope with the diagnosis and medical treatment of acute health problems and to facilitate medical care.