Emerging recommendations for Future Research

Several recommendations for future research in the literature review are highlighted below. These included the following recommendations regarding the status of the RC category:

• Large scale analysis is needed of what has contributed to the lack of success in fulfilling the purpose of the RC category (Elkonin & Sandison, 2006).

• Better utilisation of RCs in the context of mental health-care provision in South Africa should be explored (Rouillard et al., 2016).

• A comprehensive study be conducted investigating the employment patterns of BPsych (RC) graduates to more adequately assess if the goal of providing more accessible

4 I would like to acknowledge Jill Henderson in this dissertation for the way she uncovered for me some of the systemic and pervasive challenges to the RC category. An awareness and consideration of these systemic and pervasive challenges has provided me with a valuable historical and contextual understanding of the RC category as I began to engage with the current study.

62 mental health care had been significantly improved by the implementation of the RC category (Kotze & Carolissen, 2005).

The following recommendations pertained specifically to the professional identity of RCs:

• Henderson noted that a decisive and interrogative stance is needed to psychology's new professional policy be at the centre of debate and dialogue as the profession develops.

• Kotze and Carolissen (2005) emphasised the need to re-examine if training RCs was contributing to the accessibility of mental health services at the primary care level or whether “the RC was just an overqualified lay counsellor” (p. 79).

• Given that the professional identity of the RC remains complex and ambiguous, developing a professional identity is of the utmost importance in the training process of the students it is critical that future research focus on this (du Preez & Roos, 2008, p.

699).

Recommendations were also provided regarding realities and challenges for training RCs:

• Future research access a broader base of placement sites for RCs from a range of training institutions to explore the roles that RCs play in their practicum placements, in more depth, in order to better understand and to provide evidence of the practical value of the skills and expertise that they could offer (Elkonin & Sandison, 2010).

Finally, the literature highlighted how advocacy and the promotion of the RC category should become a key priority. Extensive lobbying for the creation of posts was also emphasised (Elkonin & Sandison, 2006). These activities were considered important in order to highlight to the profession and to the public the critical role of the RC in providing more accessible mental health care including counselling services and psychological intervention so as to accelerate the creation of posts for RCs (Elkonin & Sandison, 2006; Rouillard et al., 2016).

The literature recommended that stakeholders such as BPsych graduates, universities, the Psychological Society of South Africa and the Professional Board for Psychology (HPCSA) be enrolled in advocacy, lobbying and promotion of the RC.

63 3.8 The Importance of the Current Research

The current study seeks to address a number of the emerging recommendations from the literature review in alignment with the research aim and objectives of the current study. Firstly, the current study is focused on providing a large scale population level analysis of RCs across a number of domains. This analysis will attempt to take up some of the recommendations of the literature review including:

• An understanding of the current demographic status of the RC category (size, gender, ethnicity and geography);

• A comprehensive investigation of the employment patterns of RCs;

Secondly, the current study will examine the lived experience of RCs (with participants drawn from a national sample) with a focus on explicating their professional identity construction within the profession of psychology in South Africa. This analysis will also address some of the recommendations of the current literature including:

• An exploration of the complex and ambiguous journey of professional identity construction for RCs;

• The importance of advocacy and the promotion of the RC category for the purposes of enhancing professional identity for RCs.

Thirdly, the current study will also examine pertinent realities and challenges for training RCs in South Africa. In the light of these three main foci envisaged, the current study will seek to triangulate quantitative survey data garnered from a large national sample of RCs to determine the current status of the RC category in 2017; the lived experiences of RCs interviewed individually about their journey of professional identity construction as RCs within the profession of psychology in South Africa, and the feedback of academic trainers directly involved in the training of RCs. The advocacy value of the research in potentially impacting the repositioning of the RC category within the ongoing process of South African psychology’s development will also be a key focus of the current study.

3.9 Chapter Summary

This chapter has reviewed ten seminal studies published about the RC in South Africa between 2004 and 2017. A synthesis of the literature review has been presented in light of the

64 three focus areas of the current study including, the current status of the RC category, professional activities and identity and realities and challenges for training RCs. The importance of the current research was reviewed in terms of extending the recommendations of its predecessors and adding significantly to what is known about RCs to date.

The following chapter overviews the interpretivist social phenomenological research paradigm that underlies the current study. The multimethod research design will be delineated.

Positionality and reflexivity will be discussed, and finally, ethical considerations and the trustworthiness of the research will be presented.

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