Professional Responsibility of Psychologists in the Field of Mental Health in Spain

Abstract

In Spain and many other countries, psychotherapy training is heterogeneous and not very evidence-based. This contribution addresses related ethical, normative and legal issues with the aim of clarification, as well as certain relevant aspects of psychological work in the field of mental and behavioural health in Spain. It will analyse professional responsibility and possible intrusiveness in the clinical-psychological field. The authors have scrutinised national legislation along with PubMed/Medline content, as well as a wide variety of scientific papers collected using the search engines Google Scholar and Scientific Electronic Library Online. For clinical psychologists and psychiatric doctors, when appropriate, it is their professional responsibility to choose among the various and sometimes conflicting interventions proposed as the most appropriate or priority psychotherapies. Psychotherapy, as a treatment, although not regulated, should only be undertaken by health personnel who are suitably qualified in mental health with the guarantee of the State, at least in Spain. This would probably help to mitigate the perennial crisis of replication in psychology, particularly as applied to mental health. Likewise, it is a relevant and popular issue, antagonistic to intrusiveness, that any common intervention of interpersonal psychic help should be considered therapeutic, or preferably be undertaken by personnel with a degree in psychology. There is no mandatory psychotherapeutic standard for clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, nor is there an official common international system of accreditation in clinical psychology outside Spain. In the field of mental health, any intervening psychologist, like any medical doctor, is ethically and legally responsible for their actions, omissions and consequences.