Title: Research Area: Teaching and Education in Psychology
Abstract: Like many developing countries, Grenada faces many challenges that impact individuals, families, communities and the nation as a whole.These challenges manifest at the macro-level, including poverty, to the micro-level, such as substance abuse.Compounding matters is the scarcity of applied psychologists to meet the individual, community, and national needs of Grenada.In response to these pressing needs, the Grenadian Ministry of Education and World Bank supported a pilot program at St. George's University from 2008-2010 to train a cadre of guidance counselors (GUCO) already working as teachers to assume this new and important role.Due to the success of the program, the present task is to transform the GUCO pilot into a formal training program in applied psychology.The purpose of such a program would be to produce competent applied psychologists to serve Grenada and, very likely, other neighboring Caribbean island countries.The challenges of such a program are at least twofold: (1) creating a program that provides opportunities to acquire the basic knowledge and skills to work effectively in diverse settings, including communities, hospitals, private and government organizations, and schools; and (2) creating a curriculum that balances traditional and tested coursework with indigenous perspectives and methods such that graduates can offer contextually appropriate services that are both welcomed and effective.In this paper, we detail the conditions in Grenada that call for systematic applied training in a Caribbean psychology and strategies for its realization given limited resources.