Training Guidelines and Competencies for Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Psychology

Abstract

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) face unique and significant challenges that require evidencebased practices and clinicians who have advanced, comprehensive training to provide them. SMI affects about 5.5%of the U.S. population and results in serious health, social, and economic burdens.Despite advancements in treatment over the past 50 years, training programs for psychologists and other mental health providers have failed to keep up with these advances, underutilizing evidence-based assessments and interventions developed specifically for this population and found to be efficacious. To address this, the SMI Psychology Specialty has developed Training Guidelines to establish consistent, high-quality, and evidence-based training for postdoctoral psychologists. This article highlights selected features of the Training Guidelines for SMI Psychology. Although these were developed for postdoctoral training programs in SMI Psychology, they are applicable to training programs at all levels, and we hope that training programs in psychology and other mental health disciplines will incorporate these advances into their curricula.