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President's Message |
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The setting was regal – the grand ballroom in the Chicago Hilton Hotel filled with the gilded edged paintings on the ceiling and walls. Over 160 elected representatives to the APA council, the policy-making body for psychology were sitting there deliberating about issues that will impact on psychologists for the next decade or so. Seven of those representatives were paying close attention to issues that will affect YOU! Perhaps the most important of these issues was the consideration of the new Code of Ethics, which will govern our behavior until the next revision. Although the Ethics Revision Task Force had worked on the new code for five years, we still felt there were some areas that were of major concern to the ethical practitioner. David Shapiro, Chair of the division 42’s ethics task force together with the council reps spent the prior evening at caucus meetings explaining the changes we were requesting to the voting members of council. Phil Zimbardo had agreed to permit Dr. Shapiro to speak on council floor the following morning. The Ethics Revision Task Force chaired by Celia Fisher responded to our requests stating they felt our changes were unnecessary. We were adamant in our demands: We wanted more protections for practicing psychologists so they were not being judged by colleagues who did not have the same training and theoretical orientation; we did not want to be held liable for an agency at which we worked for hiring an incompetent support staffer, such as a translator; we wanted better protection of our client’s records despite the new HIPPA regulations. The morning passed quickly, and at 11 am, the time designated to discuss the ERTF on the council floor, we were all prepared to go to the microphones and argue for our positions. All voting delegates had our proposed changes in motion form at their desks. First we had to get the vote postponed until the next day. But, as might be expected on council floor, another council representative wanted the vote postponed to next February’s meeting. There followed a lengthy discussion about postponement rather than on the merits of the issues at hand. Council reps began to get cranky as it grew closer to lunchtime. We were relieved when President Zimbardo called for a lunch recess. While eating lunch, Dr. Shapiro and I were approached by a group from the ERTF who requested that we join them for lunch to negotiate our positions. We were thrilled as we knew that if we could reach a compromise, we would better protect all practicing psychologists. The next hour was tense as we hammered out language that supports YOU! I returned to the floor of council while Dr. Shapiro went to get the agreement typed and distributed to council. By 3 pm when we were scheduled to take a vote on the new ethics code, we were all prepared to take to the microphones again. Arthur Kovacs trained us in how to use them to get our message across. President Zimbardo, also thrilled that we reached agreement recognized me, and I turned to Dr. Shapiro. After a rocky start with a challenge from Gerry Koocher on procedure, we began to argue for our new compromise position that the ERTF supported. It was almost over with the final vote ready to be taken when a council representative from another division stood at the microphone to challenge some of the language on one part. We all collectively held our breaths. He forced a vote on his language and it failed. The final vote came and the new ethics code passed with language that we all can live with until the next revision… We all celebrated at the Division 42 board and membership meetings. It was nice to get congratulations from others within APA governance that we were able to compromise and still get our needs met. The process is cumbersome and complex but it does give everyone the right to debate and challenge the issues. I wanted you to get some idea of the amount of time and energy that it takes to protect our ability to practice. We need all your support and contributions to make it a happy workplace for ourselves and our clients. Happy Fall holidays. |
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