Dear Division 42 Colleagues and Friends,
Task Force on the Protection and Enhancement of Practitioner Income
Division 42 is working actively on a number of projects that will hopefully assist you to be more successful in practice over time. The first is a Task Force on the Protection and Enhancement of Practitioner Income that was appointed by 2004 Division 42 President, Ron Fox. The charge of this important task force is to develop a priority list of specific activities, actions, and/or programs that will have the greatest chance of success in helping to protect and enhance practitioner income and that are consistent with the goals and mission of Division 42. Possible approaches for this task force to consider include legislative, marketing, business, educational, market niches and expanding the consumer base. The feasibility and usefulness of creating a C-6 companion organization for Division 42 to help achieve these goals will be studied and recommendations made with regard to this and the other ideas mentioned above. This group is already at work and they will be reporting back to the Board (and to you, our members) over the coming year. The overarching goal of this group is to develop a concrete plan for Division 42 that will help its members to be more successful in practice and to ensure we each are compensated appropriately for the work we do. The very experienced and dedicated membership of this important task force are:
Tom Stigall, Chair, Glenn Ally, Linda Campbell, Stanley Graham, Sally Horwatt, Bob Resnick, and Melba Vasquez.
Interdivisional Task Force on Licensure Board Issues
Secondly, I have appointed an Interdivisional Task Force on Licensure Board Issues with members from Division 42 and Division 31 (State and Provincial Psychological Association Affairs). The short-term goals of this task force include assisting psychologists who come before their state licensure board. Longer-term goals include looking at ways to impact, and possibly reform, many problematic practices reported about some licensure boards. At present the task force members are developing a primer to assist psychologists who have had a complaint filed against them. Once it is completed it will be made available to members of both divisions. Members of the task force are:
Marty Williams, Chair, Marty Manosevitz, Mark Peterson, Lenore Walker, and myself.
More information to follow as their work progresses.
One currently available resource that may be of interest and value to Division 42 members is a document “Understanding Licensing Board Disciplinary Procedures” that was created by a CAPP/BPA task force. It is available the APA Practice Directorate’s portal at www.apapractice.org (more on this helpful site next month). To access the document click on the following links in order on that site: Practice Management, Managing Your Practice, Federal & Professional Legislation, and then on the document itself.
New Interdivisional Collaborative Projects on Diversity
Several new interdivisional collaborative projects have been initiated between Divisions 42 and 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues) with participation from Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) on several as well. These projects include:
1) Reviewing Div 42 Niche Guidelines and their accompanying CE modules for their diversity and multicultural inclusion and making needed revisions and modifications;
2) Co-sponsoring a CE pre-workshop at the APA convention in D.C. on implementing the Multicultural Guidelines for practitioners with a primer for distribution to members. A grant to CODAPAR is in the works in which Divisions 45 and 17 are collaborating.
3) Divisions 45 and 42 cosponsoring two workshops on multicultural issues in practice at the APA convention;
4) Development of an interactive online CE course on the implementation of APA’s Multicultural Guidelines with a marketing and dissemination plan.A CODAPAR (Committee of Division and APA Relations) grant application has been submitted to help fund this important work and we are moving forward with each of these initiatives. More information will be shared on each of these as we make progress.
Internet Tip
Finally, for some assistance accessing useful information via the internet, the following suggestions from Division 42 member, Pauline Wallin, should be of interest: Check out the website of the National Institute of Mental Health http://www.nimh.nih.gov/ . Here you will find dozens of patient education materials, fact sheets, news, ongoing research, clinical trials and funding information. You can also sign up for the NIMH listserv. The NIMH site is one of many mental health "hubs" on the Web. For others, see Dr. Wallin’s Psychologist's Internet Guide at http://www.drwallin.com/internetguide.html .
This is your division. Please let me know how we can better serve you. To share your ideas, feedback, or concerns, or to get involved in any our ongoing activities, please contact me at drjbarnett1@comcast.net.
Best regards to all - Jeff
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D.
2005 President
