University of Waikato psychology professor Vincent Reid (right) with Natalie Parks and Dr Joshua Myers from The Psychology Centre. Photo: Supplied
A struggling psychology clinic has been brought back from the brink after being welcomed by the University of Waikato - a move which one professor says could make the prospect of a medical school being established at the university more likely.
The Psychology Centre, previously run out of Frankton in Hamilton, was formerly a charitable trust that trained students and offered clinical therapy to members of the community.
Clinical psychologist and the centre's director, Joshua Myers, said it was facing significant financial hardship around the time of the Covid-19 lockdowns.
That was before the university took it under its wing in July, making it a permanent addition to the tertiary institution, and giving it a location on its Hamilton campus.
As a condition of the merger, the centre is no longer a charitable trust, and its workers are considered employees of the university.
Myers said the move had proved successful.
"People here have been super welcoming and helpful, and fortunately we had very little downtime for our clients, which is one of our big goals."
The College of Clinical Psychologists estimates the country needs another 1000 people filling critical mental health roles in Te Whatu Ora, Corrections, and other agencies.
He hoped the closer relationship with the university would grow the number of psychologists being trained, and help to fill that gap.
"It should mean that we can start to take more students into the clinical programme over time," he said.
As a part of the discussions, Myers said it was brought up that it would "start increasing students numbers, start producing more psychologists".
Myers said it was possible the centre could have stayed open without the university's help, but it would not have been easy and the benefits of linking up with the university were clear.
"Being able to train psychologists is a big win, I think, for us nationally ... so I just see this as a win for everybody."
Head of the School of Pyschology at the University of Waikato, Vincent Reid, said it was vital that more people were trained in the discipline.
"Clinical psychologists are actually the apex mental health workers, it takes eight years to train."
The relapse rate with them are less than with other mental health workers because of their expertise, he said, and they currently weren't enough people being trained to fill the 1000 person gap.
"Universities in New Zealand graduate less than 100 per year if you combine all of the universities and we'd love to do more but for various reasons we can't."
Reid said having the centre onsite could make it more likely a much-discussed medical school might be established at the university.
"If you have a medical school you need to have all the wrap-around aspects of medical training, and clinical psychology is one of those allied health disciplines that you would expect to have," he said.
The idea of a medical of school at the university has been bounced around for many years, and was reignited in July after National Party leader Christopher Luxon promised to go ahead with the plans to establish one if his party was elected into government.
"The Psychology Centre and clinical psychology are all a part of that journey that the University of Waikato is taking," Reid said.
The University of Otago and the University of Auckland are the only places currently training doctors in New Zealand.
