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From the Editor |
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Editorial |
Martin Williams, Ph.D. |
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This issue of the Independent Practitioner focuses, as always, on broadening, expanding and growing our practices. Associate Editor, Ed Lundeen, and I carefully keep ourselves attuned to the business of private practice, as this is the special purview of Division 42. Our aim is to direct practitioners towards novel approaches to the evolving health care marketplace, so that independently practicing psychologists will not only hang on to our market niche, but broaden it. This has been the vision of our Division since its inception. Among the articles this quarter is an intriguing idea from Harris Friedman, who explains the advantages and possibilities of creating a non-profit organization in which to carry out some or all of one’s practice. Clearly, the full implementation of such a plan would require legal advice, but Dr. Friedman argues that it has been well worth pursuing for himself and that others should look into it. I was surprised to be reminded that a psychologist practicing under the guise of a non-profit can pay himself or herself the same salary that he or she would earn as a for-profit entity. APA Recording Secretary, Ron Levant, discusses interstate mobility in his regular column. I have some first hand experience with this, as I received the Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology from ASPPB in 1998, when it was first introduced. The number of states and provinces that recognize the CPQ continues to grow. In our new world, where state lines take on decreased meaning and business becomes synonymous with business travel, the CPQ and other mechanisms for interstate practice become highly desirable. On a personal note, I recently had to turn down some potentially lucrative consulting work in Alaska because that state offers no courtesy privileges, no reciprocity with California and does not yet recognize the CPQ. I applaud each time a state gets added to the list of those accepting the CPQ, and I recommend that readers keep abreast of this on the ASPPB (Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards) web site at: www.asppb.org. Click on the “Mobility” link. Former APA President, Pat DeLeon, continues his inspirational leadership in the realm of prescribing privileges. This is another expanding practice area for psychologists. Whenever I talk to my closed-minded medical colleagues and begin to feel despair about the future of psychologists prescribing, I appreciate input from Dr. DeLeon who has tirelessly crusaded to expand our practice in this era of biochemical treatment. Even Division members who never intend to prescribe owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. DeLeon for his refusal to allow our medical colleagues to define us only marginal players in the healthcare arena. Drs. Rosenberg and Rothbaum offer another practice-expanding idea in their discussion of collaboration with physicians in the private practice setting, while David Palmiter continues to assist us in web site development. Stan Moldowsky and Tommy Stigall discuss masters level psychologists in their article taken from their August APA presentations. Clearly, the cost-cutting world of managed care favors masters level practitioners (presumably, managed care would favor bachelors level “providers” if the public would accept it). It becomes increasingly important for psychologists--defined as possessing a doctoral degree--to hang on to our professional identity as the premier providers of psychological treatment. Associate Editor, Ed Lundeen, reviews a new book on dual relationships by Arnold Lazarus and Ofer Zur. (In writing this, I acknowledge my own dual relationship as both Editor of the Independent Practitioner and contributor to the book under review). The viewpoint put forth in this book includes the suggestion that we can build our practices by offering treatment to people with whom we already have some kind of ongoing relationship, either as business associates or community members. That is how our colleagues in law and accounting make their practices grow, and we should carefully consider whether we can do some of the same without compromising our ethical standards. It is well worth noting that the newly revised APA ethics code, with input from Division 42, is now explicit about not prohibiting multiple relationships per se. This issue includes two public relations/public education suggestions from Kelly Cunningham, our consultant, and we continue to run our Mentor’s Corner for the benefit of our new practitioners. Finally, we report on the Rosalee Weiss award for Lillian Comas-Diaz, and as always, we reprint some of Frank Froman’s Sunday Rambings that originally appeared on the Division 42 Listserve. |
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