The Future of Education and Practice in Health Service Psychology: A Delphi Study

Public Significance Statement This article provides a glimpse into changes that are likely to occur in the field of health service psychology (HSP) over the course of the next 10 years, anticipating shifts in the aspects of training and education, the nature of professional practice, and the utilization of technology, as well as probable shifts in the workplace settings of health service psychologists. The future of health service psychology (HSP) is informed by its past as well as the contemporary problems and prospects that confront it. This article addressed the latter by utilizing the Delphi Polling Method to predict the field's future in relation to five domains: (a) the distinctiveness of the doctoral degree, (b) the psychotherapists of the future, (c) the role of technology in service delivery, (d) changes in graduate training, and (e) workplace changes. Results identified a number of significant shifts in the field's probable future. The distinctiveness of doctoral-level contributions is likely to be registered outside the area of psychotherapy, for example, where a range of master's-level practitioners within, and beyond, psychology is likely to gain ascendency as the primary psychotherapists of the future. Technology is predicted to play an increasingly prominent role in future service delivery, with graduate programs redoubling their attention to training in this area. Graduate programs are also likely to increase their attention to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion as well as team-based service delivery in anticipation of workplace shifts favoring a variety of medical and integrated care settings. Both the implications and limitations of these findings are discussed in relation to the field's unfolding future and the directions it may take.