Pro bono in the real World: A comprehensive review of the literature and recommendations for meaningful engagement

Background and Purpose

The APA’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists explicitly addresses and humbly encourages pro bono work: “psychologists strive to contribute a portion of their professional time for little or no compensation or personal advantage.” Yet, there is ambiguity surrounding the specifics, including frequency, time commitment, eligible services, and fair selection process to determine who will receive services. Materials and Methods: This manuscript provides the results of a comprehensive literature review on pro bono work. Initially focused on psychological assessment (e.g., neuropsychological, psychoeducational), the literature search expanded to therapy, community-based practice, and fee/paid assessment studies due to the dearth of literature. The purpose of the review to explore pro bono services in order to better understand in the future how services impact a child’s access to education, family engagement, and school relationships. Results: Two primary and secondary searches were completed. The primary search investigated the involvement of the family system when working with children and adolescents. The secondary search looked at the effectiveness of psychological, neuropsychological, and psychoeducational assessments to bolster results and provide additional recommendations and future directions. Discussion: The paper also features detailed recommendations based on the search results for how clinicians can engage meaningfully in pro bono work in their current practice along four main themes: community clinic, crisis, equity, and family support. Conclusion: Finally, future directions will address the substantial gaps in the literature on this subject.