Community psychology

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · 1965 · United States

What it is

Community psychology is a field of psychology and a practice tradition. It is not a psychotherapy, and it has no single treatment manual. SCRA describes its members as committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups and individuals. The competencies…

Format

• Community psychology has no session-based protocol. The phases below are a working cycle assembled from GTO's 10 steps, the Community Readiness Model and CBPR principles. The sequence is; the content of each phase is sourced.
• Time scale. Community projects run for months to decades, not sessions. Examples from the textbook include 25 years of DePaul–Oxford House collaboration and about 35 years of work on Fairweather's Community Lodge. SCRA describes three levels of practitioner competence: exposure (learning about a…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. Community psychology is a field of psychology and a practice tradition. It is not a psychotherapy, and it has no single treatment manual. SCRA describes its members as committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups and individuals. The competencies are offered as a framework for discussion, not as accreditation standards. It grew up in the United States in…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Your employer's rules on political activity, and client confidentiality in testimony.
• Evaluation that serves only funders. Working signs: partners use findings to change practice.
• Programmes imported without local adaptation, and outcomes measured only at the individual level.
• Outside agencies setting the vision. Working signs: a vision document that residents own and act on.
• Messages that stigmatise the community. Working signs: rising knowledge scores on reassessment (4.5).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.