Review article

Health Psychology in Croatia – Twenty Years Later

Mladen HAVELKA
Ljiljana PAČIĆ-TURK
Tanja SEVER

Abstract

Health psychology – a relatively new branch of psychology applied
in health care – has undergone rapid development during
the past twenty years. The paper gives a review of the development
of health psychology in Croatia in the field of education of
health professionals and psychologists, in the field of everyday
health care practice, and in the field of studying complex relations
between psychological phenomena, health and disease. Insufficiently
extensive education of psychologists in the field of health
psychology and limited role of psychologists as professionals and
experts in the system of health care have been identified as major
obstacles to adequate development of health psychology in
Croatia. The authors assume the development of health psychology
will take a turbulent course in the years to come, mostly due
to increased needs for psychological services in the health care
system, especially in prevention and rehabilitation processes but
also in the treatment procedures. Significant positive changes in
the status of psychologists in the health care system are expected
after the Law on Psychological Activity is passed and Croatian Psychological
Chamber is established. These should enable the psychologists
in the health care system to have a status in all respects
equal to that of other health professionals. The dynamics of development
of health psychology in Croatia depends on numerous
factors, among which the possibility to extend undergraduate
study curricula in health psychology and the need to organize
post-graduate and continuing education of psychologists in
health psychology are considered as the most important ones.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

16170

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/16170

Publication date:

30.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

Visits: 7.260 *