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The Little APA Revisited

Division News and Notes

Stanley Graham, 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

Many friends asked me what I would do if we managed to create a C-6 for the Division of Independent Practice. I am reminded that Iago told Othello, “It is not safe to be direct and honest”. However let me sketch out a short list of what I feel we should be doing.

I would give Jeannie Beeaff a raise and a contract for life since she is the person that does all the work for all of us and keeps the Division functional despite its bad habits.

I would put a lawyer on retainer so that members who ask me everyday why they are not reimbursed by managed care companies for legitimate bills can have somebody send a letter saying failure to comply may result in being forced to pay appropriate remunerations and punitive damages.

I would put aside money each year to contribute to a lawsuit against the company or agency, which is interfering with our members’ practice and our service to our clients.

I would put aside money each year to invest in significant influence with legislation where the practice of psychology is being inhibited by special interests.

Meetings of the Board of the Division would occur a day or two before the convention when everybody has to be there and two days before the Council Meeting when at least ten of our Board Members have to be at the Council Meeting anyway. APA would be covering tens of thousands of dollars which might otherwise come out of the Division’s budget. To hold Board Meetings for five hours at the APA Conventions is a plan to not get anything done, inasmuch as most of the significant members are busy running out to other meetings and advancing their careers in APA.

I would stop imitating state associations, which are required to cover every facet of psychology and recognize that we must focus on the current crisis in practice if we are to have any impact. To wit, unlike the Divisions of Clinical Psychology, Family Psychology, Psychoanalysis, etc., we are not in the business of espousing a particular area of psychological knowledge. Unlike the Divisions whose chief function is to advance the special interests of one group or another. We have only one mandate, which is to protect and advance the well being of those who deliver psychological services.

If we cannot focus on our primary task we should return our members dues and encourage them to join such organizations as advance their highest interest.

Since the founding of the Division of Independent Practice, when we became the largest division in APA, a dozen divisions have formed. Many such as Group Therapy, Psychopharmacology, and Family are for the most part specialties in which psychologists in practice invest. This may account for a diminution in membership, although all divisions in APA have suffered shrinkage because of economic pressures. To say that a person who is invested in one of the other new divisions is not interested in Independent practice is belied by the fact that we still have the largest contingent of representation in APA Council. Even under economic stress members did not choose to pay double for their basic interests. For those who wish to change the name of the division I would suggest that instead of changing the name they may wish to return to the initial purpose of the Division and stop spending a quarter of a million dollars a year on secondary and safe ventures while our Rome is burning.

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