Draft BSRB survey finds Kansas psychologists concentrated in urban areas, reports on telehealth, supervision and AI

The Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board presented a draft survey report for psychologists at the Licensed Psychology Advisory Committee meeting, summarizing responses from 297 licensees and a 28.4 percent response rate.

David Fye, the board’s executive director, said the survey was open from January through Feb. 23, 2025, and was designed to produce both profession-specific reports and a comparative report across the six other professions the board regulates. “We received feedback from 297 individuals for an overall response rate of about 28.4%, which for a voluntary survey is a really good number,” Fye said.

Key findings from the draft report included: - Workforce geography: Among respondents who listed a single county, the largest concentrations were in Johnson, Sedgwick and Douglas counties. When asked where they practiced, 86 percent said an urban area and 14 percent said rural or frontier. - Experience levels: About 81 percent of respondents reported more than 10 years of practice experience. - Work setting and hours: Fifty-five percent reported working in private practice; the most common weekly in-person service range was 20–40 hours. Telehealth usage was low for most respondents: 57 percent reported fewer than five hours of telehealth per week. - Supervision: Two-thirds of respondents who answered the supervision question said they provided fewer than five hours per week supervising, managing or overseeing others; many narrative comments raised concerns about supervisee preparedness and generational differences in training. - Artificial intelligence: A large majority (196 of 257 respondents to that question) reported not using AI; the most common current AI use was writing and grammar assistance. - Workforce retention: Two-thirds did not expect to retire in the next five years, but 18 percent said they do expect to retire and 13 percent were unsure; combined, that could mean about 30 percent of respondents may leave practice within five years.

The report also collected open-ended concerns from licensees. Fye summarized the most frequently raised practice areas needing more training as insurance and reimbursement issues, assessment and diagnostics (including autism spectrum and neurodivergence), trauma-informed care, evidence-based treatments, ethics and suicide prevention. Several respondents raised concerns about title protection and the role of master’s-level psychologists; others noted insurance barriers to telehealth, client privacy during remote care, and technical connectivity issues.

“We tried to preserve the voice of the individuals who responded to the survey while removing a little bit of information here and there to keep it anonymous,” Fye said. He asked committee members to review the appendices in the draft report and bring questions back to the June meeting.

Committee members suggested the survey findings are relevant to the postdoctoral experience discussion: several members linked supervisee preparedness and inconsistent practicum documentation to the debate over whether to count predoctoral hours toward licensure. The committee asked staff to circulate comparative profession reports and to prepare the survey materials for public posting after final edits.

The draft report will be revised and then incorporated into a comparative report across all professions the BSRB regulates. Staff said they intend to publish the final report on the BSRB website and to use the results to inform outreach to stakeholders including training programs and professional associations.