During the final days of my APA Presidency in 2000, I traveled to Washington State to present a Presidential Citation to Colleen Hacker for her outstanding contribution as a role model for our nation's female youth -- inspiring them to excel beyond their wildest dreams. That evening, Barry Anton's daughter caught him by surprise by agreeing to come to the dinner and sat next to Colleen. Subsequently, Colleen and I participated at several APA conventions where her message remains very clear: active involvement in sports will make all the difference in a girl's life -- physically, emotionally, and socially. This past month was Colleen's fifth Olympics as a mental skills coach and her first time at the winter games, working with the U.S. Women's Hockey team. "Every day it's making new friends and new connections. It's totally peace and harmony and the world's entire population in support of one another. The entire world has so much more in common, even with our differences. We're striving for excellence, we love our families. We cheer for one another. All of us say every day, why can't our countries get along the way our athletes and coaches get along?"
Now it is Barry Anton's turn to serve as APA's 123rd President. "APA is home to a diverse and talented group of psychologists who understand that, 'Together we stand.' APA's effective advocacy efforts ensuring our place in health care delivery in a changing environment, obtaining our fair share of research funding, providing quality education and training for our students, and supporting our ongoing efforts in social justice are some of the issues that I will be working on during my Presidential cycle. My proposed international summit on psychology and integrated care will help ensure that we bring our best science, our best practices, our best educators and our best trainers together to address the psychological and health needs of an increasing diverse, rapidly changing population." For me personally, Barry's long time commitment to our nation's children and ensuring that they have ready access to quality psychological care is particularly meaningful. Children are more than merely "little adults."
As the nation steadily implements President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is critical that psychology appreciates that the health care environment of tomorrow will be extraordinarily different than what many were trained for. Integrated and interdisciplinary care is the future. The unprecedented advances occurring with the communications and technology fields will allow cross-patient and cross-provider comparisons. Translational science (i.e., bringing new scientific knowledge to clinical practice) has become a high priority for the Administration. No longer will it be acceptable for new knowledge to take 15-20 years to reach practitioners.
I had the distinct pleasure of serving with Ruth Paige on the APA Board of Directors during my Presidency. She was the "behind the scenes" advocate for a number of major policy issues such as ensuring that every state association would have a vote on the Council of Representatives. Most recently, we have been collaborating on "giving a voice" to the experiences of our senior colleagues who have decided to retire and embark upon new journeys. Always exciting times. Aloha,
Pat DeLeon, former APA President – WSPA – March, 2014
