Can Laypeople Replace Psychologists, Psychiatrists in the Treatment of Depression?

I was recently intrigued by the claims made — and that went completely unchallenged — by Vikram Patel, a psychiatrist who was interviewed by Wired Science’s Greg Miller. I guess my expectations for something appearing on Wired should be readjusted. Patel claimed that specially-trained health professionals could provide enough care to people that they may be able to treat clinical depression successfully. (The article suggests these are the same as “laypeople,” but really, they’re not.) With skills learned in as little as 2 days. An amazing claim? You bet. One based in reality? Let’s find out… Here’s what Patel told Wired’s Greg Miller about the research that backs his claims that you could take health care professionals (sorry, not “laypeople”), give them a few days of training (and then followup with longer supervision), and they could successfully treat depression: Can you train people off the streets, with little education, to be counselors? We’re training them to do very specific tasks. It’s a bit like training a community midwife: You’re not training her to be an obstetrician; you’re training her to deliver a baby safely and to know when to refer the mother to a doctor. The training can be as short as two days or it can be two months, but the classes are the least important part. There’s a much longer period of supervised learning that happens through direct contact with patients. You do...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Tags: General Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Minding the Media Policy and Advocacy Psychology Psychotherapy Treatment America Clinical Psychology Cochrane Database Systematic Review Depression Depression (mood) Family Physic Source Type: blogs