Article archive / October 1, 2015
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 10. Source pages: 13.
Student Corner Loyola Student Earns LPA Top Research Poster Honor
Ms. Sarah Scalese, a graduate of Loyola University who studied physicians’ perceptions of psychology consultations won the first place under-graduate research poster at the recent Louisiana Psychological Association convention.
Scalese worked with Dr. Amy Henke of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, to capture information about collaboration in health services.
Scalese and Henke surveyed physicians within seven specialties at Children’s Hospital and found the most commonly cited reasons for consultations with psychologists were mental health, building diagnostic evidence, and helping patients cope with illness.
Physicians also reported problems due to long waiting times for psychological services and patients refusals.
Scalese and Henke found that physicians expressed a desire for increased involvement with general outpatient services, including services from medical psychologists, and had generally positive relationships with psychology in medical settings.
The authors said the results suggest an acceptance of pharmacological treatments over non-pharmacological treatments.
The Times asked Scalese what she found to be the most important findings of her work. “What I believe to be the most fascinating, and most relevant finding to us in Louisiana, is that 77% of surveyed physicians requested more services from medical psychologists! I believe this could suggest an acceptance of psychologists as prescribers, but certainly could also highlight physicians’ adherence to the medical model (i.e. more comfort with drugs than behavioral intervention).
“It could also potentially point to a lack of success on psychology's part in helping the general public understand the power of non-pharmacological intervention,” Scalese said, “particularly as research shows that quality therapy is more efficacious for mild/moderate mental illness (i.e. mild/moderate depression) compared to medication (and results in less relapse following discontinuation!)”
Ms. Scalese is originally from the Philadelphia area and moved to New Orleans to attend Loyola.
“At Loyola, I took a field practicum class and was lucky enough to be placed in the Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit at Children’s Hospital. There, I shadowed Dr. Amy Henke, a clinical psychologist who serves as a consultant to the medical team,” she said. “It was such an incredible learning experience, I didn’t want to leave at the end of the semester. Eager to get more research experience, when Dr. Henke informed me the Psychology Department could benefit from a quality improvement project to enhance collaboration within treatment teams, I jumped at the opportunity!”
This was Ms. Scalese’s first independent research study. “… there were many small bumps along the way, despite the great support Dr. Henke provided me. I found that I had to work at a snails pace to ensure I got everything right. In particular, I had difficulty translating the data into a clear and concise visual format so that people viewing my poster could quickly understand my findings.”
Ms. Scalese is currently in the process of applying to graduate schools in clinical psychology and she hopes to study childhood trauma. She is currently working full time an Early Childhood Development Center.
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