Although there are many different approaches to mental health care, services in England are predominantly designed and organized around a Western, individualized and biologically understood approach. Psychiatric diagnoses have come under scrutiny because they are not holistic in attempting to understand emotional distress as they exclude psychosocial factors contributing to distress and overemphasize the need for medication. This essay will attempt to answer the question of whether it is possible to apply the principles of community psychology within psychiatry-led services and the difficulties that may arise for a clinical psychologist (CP) in attempting to do so. I will focus my essay by attempting to critically evaluate whether the traditional therapeutic model involving a 1:1 intervention or a community psychology approach are more suitable when working with people who may experience inequalities in access to services and are therefore typically underrepresented in dialogue. therapies. This will be done by addressing three main areas, therapeutic work with clients, systemic work and thirdly attempts to develop the CP profession. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The primary purpose of psychology and psychotherapy is to increase well-being with research demonstrating that both internal psychological factors and external socio-environmental factors are involved in the development of mental health problems. The current practice, however, of how psychology and psychotherapy are applied has been criticized by psychologists such as Stephen Joseph (2007) for having lost their way and unintentionally becoming agents of social control. Stephen Joseph suggests that by overemphasizing psychological and biological factors and ignoring socio-environmental factors, psychologists are perpetuating social injustice. Similarly, liberation psychologists such as Martin Baro (1994) have called for psychology to critically examine itself to be able to support people's well-being and be a transformative force rather than continually imposing its own vision of well-being and then continuing the oppressive and dominant discourse. Gillian Proctor (2005), a clinical psychologist, has also recently criticized current practice by stating: ...the psychologisation of distress places the cause of psychological illness firmly within the individual... Therefore deprivation, abuse, social oppression and distress and the political context of distress can be largely ignored and the practice of clinical psychology can continue to try to eliminate the problems caused by a sick society. (p.280) The individualistic approach was further commented on by Harper (2016), who argued that CPs adopted a predominantly individualistic approach which prevented them from maximizing the variety of their skills. The individualistic approach has limited CPs to providing predominantly individual therapy (Norcross & Karpiak, 2012), which manages distress once it has arisen. Traditional individual therapy also tends to locate both the "causes" and the "solution" to distress within the individual, rather than in his or her environment. This not only legitimizes the therapist's basis for conducting the intervention, but individuals view themselves as problematic, rather than recognizing contributing factors arising from problematic environments (Smail, 2005). It has also been argued that, due to this individualistic approach, psychology has underestimated preventive strategies and neglects the role that contextsocial play in the experience of one's discomfort (Humphreys, 1996, p.193). Martin-Baro, in his attempts to facilitate social transformation, suggested that the problem for psychology is that the solution offered to socially produced problems often attempts to change individual behavior, while the social order remains preserved, thus reinforcing behavior individual. the discussion of problems caused and located within the individual. Martin-Baro adopted the use of the term “conscientization” with marginalized and oppressed communities, from Freire's (1971) critical pedagogy which liberation psychologists described as the process by which individuals develop a greater capacity to reflect, interpret and act to promote positive change. Community psychology offers an alternative that appears to address these difficulties for which the clinical psychology profession has been criticized. Jim Orford (2008) defined community psychology by stating that “the central idea of ​​community psychology is that the functioning of people, including their health, can only be understood by appreciating the social contexts in which they are placed. It is "community psychology" because it emphasizes a level of analysis and intervention that goes beyond the individual and his immediate interpersonal contexts. Community psychology initially borrowed from conceptions of human developmental ecology (e.g. Bronfenbrenner, 1979), and subsequently drew on a number of models and theories including those relating to empowerment (e.g. Rappaport, 1987) and liberation psychology (e.g. Montero, 1998). . Uses a multilevel focus (Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2010) with analyzes of micro-systems (e.g. a family or social network), meso-systems (i.e. links between micro-systems such as between home and school or work-work relationships) . home) and macrosystems (e.g. social norms, economic systems and policies). This multilevel approach can therefore distinguish between various influences that might be exerted on people in specific social contexts at different stages of their lives. Similar to public health, community psychology also takes a preventive orientation to promote healthy lifestyles and environments and was born out of dissatisfaction with the tendencies of clinical psychologists to localize mental health problems within the individual. The key principles that community psychologists ascribe to are; Attribute importance to people's social contexts by avoiding placing blame on the individual and looking at the broader ecological systems with which a person interacts, including political, cultural and environmental influences (Levine, Perkins & Perkins 2005). Power, empowerment, and disempowerment are central concepts in community psychology, meaning it recognizes that individuals with relatively little power are most negatively affected by their health (Jim Orford 2008). Power in this sense is controlled and organized by society which will include wealth, gender and ethnic group membership and community psychology aims to increase awareness of these levels of power and how they are used which can influence psychological functioning. The practice of community psychology also involves working collaboratively with others who are usually the marginalized and powerless ones. This is usually exercised by going beyond recognizing power dynamics by finding ways in which to combat inequality and injustice by resisting oppression. One of the ways community psychology does this is by promoting respect for diversity and working to find ways to redistribute power to achieve greater equality between groups (Jim Orford 2008). ThereCommunity psychology is committed to using a plurality of research and action methods by engaging in action-oriented research to develop, implement, and evaluate programs. There are currently numerous ongoing debates in the field of psychology regarding whether it is possible to practice fully in accordance with the principles of community psychology. The following clinical examples aim to highlight good practices but also some current challenges. How can CPs apply the Principles of Community Psychology when working therapeutically with clients? Mental health services have long grappled with how to meet the needs of marginalized communities. Often seen as 'difficult to reach', but are usually those most in need of support, the number of people from black and minority ethnic communities is disproportionately lower in voluntarily accessed talking therapies and over-represented within of non-voluntary services such as hospital care in the section (Weatherhead and Daiches 2010). Common barriers identified in the literature include language barriers; awareness and familiarity with talking therapies; therapy (Morgan et al., 2009).These barriers have triggered and influenced the use of community psychology and narrative therapy within interventions Community Psychology due to its ability to give meaning and credence to a person's history and identity Recognizes issues of power and oppression, and the place and status of diversity and belief systems that have been supported by literature: “Despite overwhelming evidence that social inequalities such as poverty fundamentally create and maintain psychological and physical illness, most traditional psychological therapies continue to promote internalized and decontextualized theories and practices....""In contrast, narrative therapy highlights the importance of ideological power in human distress, highlighting how dominant discourses within society relating to race, gender and “mental illness” can negatively impact clients’ well-being.” (Kelly and Maloney 2006) One such project, which offers a good insight into how CPs can work with clients in accordance with the principles of community psychology is The Trailblazers Project. The Trailblazer project was developed in 2009 to increase access to talking therapies for black men with mental health problems, funded by the National Delivering Race Equality Programs and facilitated by Dr Angela Byrne of the NHS BME Access Service, the project aimed to improve referral rates to psychological therapies, while also exploring whether PCs should be aware of specific cultural issues when providing particular therapeutic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy. The program involved 11 African and Caribbean men who attended 5 sessions to take part in The Tree of Life?1 which is a tool, model, framework for narrative therapy, developed by an African psychologist (Ncube 2006). The project achieved good results with participants reporting a positive experience and improved understanding of talk therapy and demonstrated a good example of how CPs are able to support the principles of community psychology whilst continuing to work with psychiatry-led services. Despite being placed within a system that predominantly involved 1:1 intervention and within a more cognitive behavioral framework, the pioneer project managed to co-produce the design and implementationof the project that contributed to its good results and therefore to fight against the discourse of power placed in the services. The program's recommendations supported subsequent interventions with both the Turkish and Vietnamese communities. My experience working within adult psychiatry, which led me to serve in 2014 with a community psychology approach, has provided me with valuable insights into the difficulties PCs may encounter when trying to uphold the principles of psychology of community. My work within The Tower Hamlets BME Access service as an assistant psychologist involved providing interventions within the community to increase access and acceptability of talking therapies for the Bangladeshi Muslim community. Delivered within secondary care mental health services and working within a community with a large Bangladeshi community (32% in Tower Hamlets) and with the highest proportion of Muslim residents in England (35% compared to national average of 5%), the 'Faith in Recovery' project was run in collaboration with a community mental health service with the aim of making talk therapy more relevant to clients and in a culturally sensitive way (Mustafa and Byrne 2014). The intervention lasts 8 weeks with 10 participants contributing to the design of the sessions. Islamic ideas of well-being were incorporated into the Tree of Life and an imam was invited at the request of participants to raise questions about religious ideas about mental distress. The sessions were evaluated through a focus group where members expressed interest in further groups run similarly. Members spoke about the importance of peer support and contributed to the success of the group as it was run within a community and in a “safe” environment (Mustafa and Byrne 2014), and with them they contributed to the design and to realization according to how they wanted to develop their understanding of emotional distress by connecting directly to community psychological principles of power, empowerment, collaborative working and keeping social context in mind. Despite the success of this project and the clear commitment to reducing ethnic inequalities made by According to the National Service Framework and the NHS Plan for Mental Health (Department of Health, 2005), the service has failed to retain my post as a carer psychologist to continue the work, leaving only the lead psychologist having to continue the work on a part-time contract. This is a familiar struggle that many community psychologists face and with this possibility in mind we have provided the intervention in line with the community engagement model (Fountain et al, 2007) which seeks to collaborate with voluntary sector staff with hope that skills can be shared between both parties and that they will be able to continue managing the interventions even after the involvement of the control points. Critics of community psychology further criticize community-run projects by stating that they run the risk of unintentionally being agents of social control because they are regulated by government policy and essentially a provider of medical services (Parker 2007). Other projects have sought to combat these difficulties by strategically placing themselves in the charity sector. Music and Change, founded by Charlie Alcock, works with often underrepresented young people living in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods by engaging them in innovative means of accessing talk therapy such as "street therapy", which focuses on building trust and rapport with young people in environments, 2009).