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From the Editor

Editorial

Martin H. Williams, Ph.D.

Spring 2004 - Table of Contents

Contents

Editorial

President’s Message/Ronald Fox

From the Editor/Martin H. Williams

Professional Practice

Finding In-Network Mental Health Services: A Phantom Network Odyssey/Russell Holstein

Self-Pay Clients, Not Insurance Companies, Deserve a Discount/Ivan J. Miller

Child and Family Interventions in the Forensic Setting: A Second Opinion/T. Richard Saunders

Advocacy

A Maturing Profession in Challenging Times/Pat DeLeon

Washington Update—On Being a Medical Patient/Ronald F. Levant

Psychology and Political Action/T. Richard Saunders

Students/Early Career Professionals

The Mentor’s Corner/Miguel E. Gallardo and Michael Murphy

Book Reviews

Essentials of Private Practice: Streamlining Costs, Procedures, and Policies for Less Stress, by Holly A. Hunt, Ph.D/ Reviewed by Sandra Levy Ceren

Humor

Sunday Ramblings/Frank Froman

My three-year term is coming to a close, and this column is my last as Editor of the Independent Practitioner. Beginning with the Winter 2005 issue, Ed Lundeen will move up from Associate Editor and begin his three year term as Editor. Ed’s Associate Editor will be Frank Froman. I cannot imagine a better team to continue to guide the Independent Practitioner over the next three years.

As I write this, I ponder where the IP has been and where it is going. In the six years that I have served as either Associate Editor or Editor, I have seen the IP reflect the evolving work of the division. In these pages you have read about PICK 42, our effort to encourage independently practicing psychologists to move into new markets and expand their incomes. This forward thinking venture expressed one of the core values of our Division: to assist independent practitioners in increasing their incomes. The IP alerted our members, each issue, to the growing variety of niche guides and how to obtain them. Hopefully, the IP served as a vehicle to direct practitioners to the niche guides and, perhaps in an indirect way, helped some of us to expand our practices and increase our income.

During the course of the APA Ethics Code revision, the IP ran numerous articles on the workings of our Ethics Code Task Force and our effort to help create a practice climate that would let our businesses flourish with less interference and restriction by licensing boards that make use of the APA Code. We have also run articles on risk management by noted ethics experts and have explored the interaction between risk management and practice style. These articles in the IP reflected a deep commitment by our board to assist practitioners in making a living—something Division 42 but no other APA division is all about.

The IP has regularly run articles by Dan Egli and others who have furthered the cause of prescribing psychologists. The IP has been the messenger carrying the news to all independent practitioners of our progress towards prescription privileges. Even psychologists who do not belong to one of the organizations that are aggressively moving us towards prescribing have been kept abreast in the pages of the IP.

The IP has also reflected our Division’s commitment to sustaining independent practice by doing our best to support young practitioners as they set out on the adventure of free enterprise. The average age of Division members is the mid-fifties, and a real danger exists that Division 42 will atrophy as our experienced members move towards retirement. The IP has run the Mentors’ Column to assist our younger practitioners enter the world of independent practice. Hopefully, the next few years will see us recruit more younger members who will find new ways to thrive in today’s and tomorrow’s health care environment.

The IP has charted the growth of managed care for mental health treatment and has run several articles exposing the flaws in that system for both patient and practitioner. Many ideas about how to create a managed care free practice have appeared on the pages of the IP.

Finally, the IP has served as a vehicle to move many of us into a more computerized world. Numerous articles have provided a step-by-step tutorial on establishing a presence on the internet. The IP should take partial credit for the fact that many of us now have our own websites and get at least some of our business through internet referrals.

Then there has been the format of the IP. Currently, the IP publishes full articles, often accompanied by authors’ photos. Our Division, like all APA divisions, has struggled with decreasing revenues over the years, and the board has not failed to notice that the IP is the single biggest expense item in the Division’s budget. There have been proposals to drastically shrink the IP in size, something that would save both printing costs and postage costs. One idea was to accept far fewer articles, and another was to print only portions of articles and to direct readers to Division 42 Online to read the complete article. Fortunately, neither of these proposals has been accepted. The IP continues in its present size and format because it is the single most tangible benefit of Divisional membership for most of us, and, although I love the electronic world, I recognize there is nothing so portable as a paper publication that you can access anywhere: airplane, commuter train and bathroom.

I am encouraged and excited at some of the ideas that Ed Lundeen has put forth for making the IP even better. Watch for the Winter 2005 Editor’s column to see the beginning of a new chapter in the development of this wonderful publication.

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