Elizabeth A. Klonoff - Böcker

As professional psychology has transformed into the practice of psychology as a health profession, a substantial focus has been placed on defining the competencies required for practicing as health service providers. Not all health service providers, however, acquire the essential competencies needed for functioning in medical hospitals and health science center settings, the province of clinical health psychology. It is important to distinguish competencies for practicing as health service providers from competencies for the specialty practice of clinical health psychology. In Specialty Competencies in Clinical Health Psychology, Larkin and Klonoff provide a comprehensive overview of recent efforts to define specialty competencies for the practice of clinical health psychology. They have been at the table for every national conversation focusing on this topic and share this knowledge with those who desire to become clinical health psychologists and those who train and supervise them.Series in Specialty Competencies in Professional PsychologySeries EditorsArthur M. Nezu and Christine Maguth NezuAs the field of psychology continues to grow and new specialty areas emerge and achieve recognition, it has become increasingly important to define the standards of professional specialty practice. Developed and conceived in response to this need for practical guidelines, this series presents methods, strategies, and techniques for conducting day-to-day practice in any given psychology specialty. The topical volumes address best practices across the functional and foundational competencies that characterize the various psychology specialties, including clinical psychology, cognitive and behavioral psychology, school psychology, geropsychology, forensic psychology, clinical neuropsychology, couples and family psychology, and more. Functional competencies include common practice activities like assessment and intervention, while foundational competencies represent core knowledge areas such as ethical and legal issues, cultural diversity, and professional identification. In addition to describing these competencies, each volume provides a definition, description, and development timeline of a particular specialty, including its essential and characteristic pattern of activities, as well as its distinctive and unique features. Written by recognized experts in their respective fields, volumes are comprehensive, up-to-date, and accessible. These volumes offer invaluable guidance to not only practicing mental health professionals, but those training for specialty practice as well.

In this special issue, top researchers from a diversity of disciplines provide an overview of and insights into the major social, cultural, and structural variables that play a role in Black women's poor health, and differential morbidity and mortality. The articles focus on the major threats to Black women's health such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, violence, and AIDS, and utilize a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods from medicine, psychology, sociology, and feminist analysis. Among the articles are:* An examination of the role of Black women's cultural and ethnomedical beliefs in their use of cancer screening by Laurie Hoffman-Goetz and Sherry Mills of the National Cancer Institute;* An empirical analysis of Black women's utilization of health services entailing more than 18,000 women by Lonnie Snowden and his colleagues at the University of California-Berkeley Center for Mental Health Services Research;* A comprehensive review and empirical analysis of the role of violence in Black women's health by Nancy Felipe Russo (Arizona State University), Mary Koss (University of Arizona), and Gwen Keita (APA Office on Women);* An empirical investigation of the role of social and contextual variables in HIV risk among low-income Black women by Kathleen Sikkema, Timothy Heckman, and Jeffrey Kelly of the Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin. Other articles include comprehensive and critical analyses and reviews of diabetes, breast cancer risk perceptions, and obesity among Black women, as well as analyses of Black women's exclusion from research in medicine, women's health, health psychology, and behavioral medicine. The first issue of any psychology journal to be devoted to the health of Black women, this special issue is a step in the direction of redressing the long-overdue neglect of Black women's health. It provides a cogent overview of the state of Black women's health, numerous empirical investigations, and clear suggestions for future research.