Dear Division 42 Colleagues and Friends,
Recent discussions on the Division 42 listserv have highlighted an area of great
concern for many of our members. APA's Division 41, the American Psychology-Law
Society, is in the process of proposing and promulgating a revision to the 1991
guidelines on Forensic Psychology. Division 42 member and former President,
Lenore Walker, has been following this closely for our Division and has been
sharing information with us on the Division's listserv. Lenore and a number of
other Division 42 practicing forensic psychologists find many deficiencies in
the proposed guidelines. In fact, several have pointed out proposed wording
that, if adopted, will likely have a significantly deleterious impact on
psychologists' ability to function in forensic roles.
I will be appointing a task force of Division 42 members with expertise in
forensic psychology and/or the development of guidelines. Any Division 42
members interested in being considered for service on this task force please
contact me directly in the next week at drjbarnett1@comcast.net. It is vital
that we follow the work of Division 41 closely, participate in the process of
the development of these guidelines in all ways possible, and work hard to
influence this process so that the needs and views of those in practice are
addressed. We must have our collective voices heard.
To view the current version on these draft guidelines please go to the file
sharing center on the Division 42 website at:
www.div42.org/MembersArea.
Your username is last name all in lowercase and password is your APA member
number. Let our website Editor, Gordon Herz, know if you have trouble accessing
it. and he'll help or send it directly to anyone who wants it. Gordon can be
contacted at: Gordon@DRHERZ.US.
Please review these guidelines and send me your reactions and
comments.
The guidelines will be discussed from 4 to 6 pm on Friday night, March 4th at
the Hyatt Regency hotel in La Jolla, CA in conjunction with the Division 41
meeting that weekend. We are working to arrange to have a representative there.
Anyone able to be there for us please contact me immediately so we can make the
needed arrangements.
As I've mentioned previously, please be sure to send in your nominations ballot
for APA President and be sure to nominate practitioners. Division 42 member and
Finance Committee Chair, Katherine Nordal, Ph.D., is the only independent
practitioner presently actively seeking this nomination. She's the Chair of
APA's Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) and has long
been a very effective leader in APA governance activities. To learn more about
her qualifications and experience please visit her website at
http://www.drnordal.com. Please nominate Katherine Nordal and any other interested practitioners to be
on the election ballot for APA President.
Division 42's mentoring program, Colleague to Colleague, is up and running.
Clearly, it is meeting a need that is present in the Division. We already have
12 pairs of mentors and mentees working together. I hope C2C will continue to
grow and be even more successful. If you are interested in being paired with a
mentor to assist you to be successful in your practice or if you are interested
and willing to share some of your knowledge and expertise with a colleague
please contact the coordinator of our mentoring program, Frank Froman, at
frankf@adams.net.
For some useful information on the use of websites to advertise your practice
please see the website of Division 42 member, Carol Goldberg, Ph.D. She also
provides a thoughtful comparison of the use of websites with word of mouth,
brochures, direct mail, media ads, and free media publicity. Visit her website
at
http://www.websitesandsoundbites.com for this helpful
information.
Best,
Jeff
