Licensure and Certification
Licensure and certification summarizes the mechanisms in place for identifying qualified psychologists, both at the governmental level, and by private organizations that credential licensed psychologists. Those terms are distinguished from and compared to other terms such as credentials, registered, and chartered. Standards for the recognition of psychologists are stated. Organizations that credential psychologists in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are briefly described. Characteristics of credible credentialing organizations are summarized. 
 
 
Keywords: 
 
counseling psychology; 
health psychology; 
practice in clinical psychology; 
certification; 
credential; 
doctoral degree; 
globalization; 
health; 
health service psychologist; 
licensure
Psychology's self-regulation and the setting of professional standards
Abstract This article presents three certification mechanisms, providing a historical introduction and a status report on each, and then relates each as a form of assessment of competence with differences in level and scope. Key national organizations that play a major role in designation or accreditation of psychology programs or in the credentialing of individual psychologists are profiled. The article concludes with a recommendation for an international regulatory council in psychology to deal with interorganizational issues in the profession.
The Role of the State
This chapter summarizes state governments’ influence on mental health services, giving examples of and providing a rationale for the methods that the states have used. Because the state’s mechanism for affecting change is through legislation and the accompanying rules and regulations, we will focus on examples of legislation, the intent of which is to affect, directly or indirectly, the provision of mental health services. This legislation may be in the form of a licensure or a certification bill that regulates the mental health professions. Once licensure is in place, legislation may establish a mechanism for determinating the provider of services, the payment of services, or the evaluation of services (Kelvorick, 1981).