Forming robust teams to support and protect vulnerable communities
Pre-Employment Psychological Assessments (PEPA) ensures clients have defensible processes in the selection of psychologically robust employees and volunteers for organisations delivering services to vulnerable people in New Zealand.
Pre-Employment psychological assessments for a defensible selection process
Who PEPA support
We support New Zealand based organisations that work with vulnerable populations, including:
Organisations that care for or lead groups serving individuals with vulnerabilities, due to age or disability
Church and faith-based institutions
Sporting organisations with a focus on youth coaching
Our services strengthen your staff selection processes to ensure safer environments for those in your care.
Why use PEPA?
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into State Care and the Care of Faith-based Institutions highlighted the importance of the best possible care of individuals in positions of vulnerability.
To achieve this, employees and volunteers in care-taking roles need to possess psychological resilience and protective factors associated with their emotional well-being, interpersonal skills, stable sense of self, empathic concern for others, and effective support networks.
Similarly, skill deficits or specific psychological characteristics of an individual can pose as risk factors for an organisation employing someone to these positions of high trust and high responsibility.
PEPA was established in response to these findings.
"Proven utility for assessing within faith-based contexts"
System Design
Consultation to design the system to obtain reliable information for a SPJ assessment.
SPJ Assessments
Completion of SPJ psychological assessments to compliment your existing pre-employment selection.
This will involve obtaining pre-assessment interviews and mental health questionnaires, a clinical interview, relevant psychological and personality testing and interpretation, and a psychological report summarising the results with recommendations.
Training
Training for organisations, including: psychological functioning in the workplace, personality, group dynamics, defensible decision-making, and effective communication.
Supervision/Competency Frameworks
Consultation and advice on supervision and competency frameworks and/or development for your organisation.
Other services
PEPA also provide a range of other psychological services, and we welcome your enquiries around the following:
Clinical Supervision with Psychologists, Lawyer for Child, Counsellors, Allied Health Professionals, and organisations in programme delivery.
Training packages for organisations and NGOs to meet business needs.
Group therapy training and supervision.
Supervision framework development or quality assurance reviews.
Competency framework development or quality assurance reviews.
Mentoring for Trainee Psychologists or other health professionals.
Fees
Fees are a flat rate of $200 (plus GST) per hour for the following:
Direct services (client contact and assessment)
Related clinical services (e.g., test scoring and interpretation, report writing)
Consultation, and development advice
Training rates for workshops or seminars are $2000 (plus GST) for a full-day or $1200 (plus GST) for a half-day.
Interested in a service listed, let's talk
Read more about Claire Troon
B.A.(Psych), LL.B, PGDip(Psych, with Distinction), MSocSc(Psych, 1st Class Hons), PGDip.Psych(Clin.), MNZPsS, MICJFP, MNZCCP
Claire is a clinical psychologist who trained at the University of Canterbury and Waikato University. She has worked in the fields of mental health and correctional settings for over 10 years.
Within the Corrections’ setting she has worked in the areas of assessment and treatment with people who have a high risk of sexual and/or violent offending, and provided expert ethical and professional practice advice to the psychology and rehabilitation programmes workforces.
Claire has several years of experience in roles with a core focus on using medico-legal principles to provide best practice advice. She also has experience in policy creation, handling complaints and legal requests, developing practice guidance, and designing systems to ensure integrity in practice.
Claire has worked with a range of stakeholders at the national level to develop frameworks that are responsive and defensible. She enjoys delivering training and providing clinical supervision to other practitioners or groups.
Read more about Glen Kilgour
B.Soc.Sc (Psych), M.Soc.Sci (Psych, 1st Class Hons), PGDip.Psych (Clin), MNZPsS (Life Member), MICJFP
Glen is a clinical psychologist who trained at Waikato University. He has worked in mental health and correctional settings for over 30 years.
Within the Corrections’ environment he has held positions providing expert psychological advice and programme development, along with running teams of experienced psychologists and other professionals within therapeutic sessions.
Glen has experience with direct clinical services, programme development, research, policy development, staff selection and management, advice on ethical practice, training and supervision.
Glen ran the Corrections’ Psychologists Board approved Supervision to Registration programme for a number of years. He has completed numerous research evaluations including of programmes for high-risk men and is experienced with programme design and evaluation methods.
Our Values
Community Wellbeing
PEPA has been set up to respond to the need for organisations who service vulnerable populations to provide more robust pre-employment selection of staff who provide care and/or have authority over others.
By selecting staff who are psychologically healthy, prosocial in orientation, and who have good interpersonal skills and supports, we believe that vulnerable individuals will be at less risk of being subject to emotional, physical or sexual harm.
Professionalism
We strive to provide ethical, high-quality, and client-centered care in all aspects of our practice.
Quality Service
We are committed to providing a quality service by ensuring that each client receives personalised, evidence-based care that is tailored to their unique needs.
We aim to provide a safe and supportive environment where our clients – both organisations and individuals we are assessing – feel heard and respected.
Integrity
We will ensure that our personal beliefs and biases do not interfere with our professional responsibilities, always striving to treat each client with respect and fairness.
We recognise that, at times, our assessments may identify that a candidate applying for a role may not be suitable for this role and that we will make reasonable efforts to support that candidate in understanding the rationale for our decision.