September 2003
Volume 16, Number 9
From Psychology to Allied Health An Interdisciplinary Vision
It was in the millennium year that an offer to join the School of Allied Health at the University of Connecticut materialized. I never contemplated such a move, but after a successful career as an administrator, clinician, researcher, and educator, the surprising opportunity materialized. Allied health by definition involves a group of health-related professionals representing a variety of specialties including dieticians, medical laboratory scientists, diagnostic genetic scientists, cytotecnologists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, kinesiologists, and health promotion specialists, speech language pathologists and audiologists, among other professions.
I thought I had accomplished many of the milestones of a successful career in psychology. Since the onset of my career, I had a vision of interdisciplinary administration, research, clinical care and teaching. The opportunity to be involved in interdisciplinary international clinical and research exchanges - which took me everywhere from the Institute of psychiatry at the University of London, to the National Mental Health Research Centers in Russia and Armenia - produced a remarkable series of publications reflecting international and interdisciplinary clinical research experiences.
There were many positive variables to address in exploring this pathway, one of which was the emphasis at NIH on interdisciplinary research and science. Psychology and the behavioral sciences could play a critical role in such an emphasis. In the year 2000, there was an initiative to fund collaborative efforts, and one that immediately caught my eye was the Center for Health HIV Intervention and Prevention on the campus of the University of Connecticut. The focus of this effort was to provide an interdisciplinary experience within a center consisting of several professionals representing a variety of allied health disciplines. The core and leadership in this center promote mentorship and collegial enterprise among the students, faculty, and administrators, and when the director of the center extended an invitation to join this esteemed group of colleagues, I knew that interdisciplinary clinical and research endeavors had a vision and a home on this campus, one where I could offer the wealth of knowledge gained from two decades in a university college of medicine and department of psychology, where I worked closely with physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and allied health professionals.
There were many intriguing aspects to joining the school of allied health, the most significant of which was the potential for collegial sharing in science, teaching, research, and clinical practice. This sharing has, in many cases, advanced to the level of enterprise. Efforts to adopt the multidisplinary approach have been a significant contribution to the body of knowledge that comprises the allied health professions. Each discipline brings to the table unique contributions and pathways to sound research and clinical efforts. Much can be learned from the arrangement offered at the school of allied health. All health related professions should consider a place under the multidisciplinary umbrella of allied health.
The opportunity to work in a university community and school of allied health that has captured and cultivated interdisciplinary sharing and exchange of ideas, theory, research, and practice has provided the chance to touch the careers of several students, emerging faculty, and colleagues in the health related professions and allowed for much interdisciplinary collaboration.
