Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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334. To ask the Minister for Health the number of assistant psychologists currently working in a voluntary capacity within HSE services by CHO area in tabular form. [12210/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly on this.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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335. To ask the Minister for Health when the national pilot to establish the efficacy of the assistant psychologist grade as a paid grade will be completed; if the report will be published; and the expected timeframe for publication. [12211/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The role initially referred to as “Assistant Psychologist” is now titled “Psychology Assistant”,  in line with best practice for grades which provide support services to professionally accredited health and social care professionals.

The final evaluation report on the pilot Psychology Assistant initiative  was submitted to the HSE in October 2021 and was then forwarded to the Department of Health for consideration.   The report was extremely positive regarding the impacts of the PA grade in enhancing the capacity of primary care psychology services (circa 15,500 more clients to be seen than would otherwise be the case between 2018-2021), freeing clinical psychologists to perform at their level of competency and in improving service users' clinical measures. Further to this, the grade also extends opportunities for psychology graduates to gain professional experience whilst working in a paid capacity for the HSE. 

In December 2021, following comprehensive engagement with the HSE and evaluation of the final report, the Department granted sanction for the establishment of the PA grade on a permanent basis and extended the contract term for the role to three years.

As the pilot initiative was conducted by the HSE and the evaluation was carried out under instruction of the Executive, I have asked the HSE to reply directly to the Deputy on the question of publication of the report.