SAN FRANCISCO – OUR 126th ANNUAL CONVENTION
APA conventions are always extremely exciting. It is wonderful to see old friends once again. Naturally, critical cutting-edge, transformational topics always fill the program:
Licensure Mobility: Immediately after the convention, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) held its second Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT) Educational Summit in Washington, DC. Representatives from 17 state psychological associations and licensing boards, as well as their state legislators, attended this invited summit. The purpose of the summit was to provide information on PSYPACT and how it will function. Briefly, it allows individual psychologists to provide ethical and legal electronic interjurisdictional psychological services to clients. It will vet psychologists to make sure they have the requisite education, training, and supervised experience, as well as no disciplinary or criminal history, to ensure the public is protected. More specifically, psychologists who are licensed in a compact state (which requires legislative action) will be authorized to provide electronic psychological services into another compact state without having to be licensed in that jurisdiction. It will also allow psychologists to temporarily provide face-to-face service in another jurisdiction without being licensed.
PSYPACT will become operational when seven jurisdictions pass legislation adopting the compact. To date, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, and Missouri have passed enabling legislation. Most recently, Illinois enacted their statute, making it the seventh state. However, unlike the first six states where their laws will become effective when seven states have similarly acted, Illinois will not become effective until January 1, 2020. Thus, while seven jurisdictions have adopted PSYPACT, in reality, until January 2020, there are only six states. ASPPB is optimistic since eight to 12 additional states are expected to introduce legislation in their next legislative cycle. [For more information, contact Alex Siegel at asiegel@asppb.org.]
RxP: That weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Beth Rom-Rymer’s Fifth Biannual Prescriptive Authority Networking dinner in the Windy City of Chicago. APA Chief Executive Officer Art Evans, Beth’s fellow APA Board Member Stewart Cooper, along with Angela Miller of Ohio and David Greenfield of Connecticut -- representing states that are inching closer and closer to enacting prescriptive authority legislation (RxP) -- were present. The enthusiasm was electrifying, generated by numerous Illinois (IPA) members, engaged community supporters, and especially their RxP students. In all, there were approximately 115 in attendance. Substantive change always takes time; often far more than one might expect. IPA, under then-President Beth, saw its landmark RxP legislation signed into law on June 25, 2014. Today there are two Illinois colleagues awaiting formal State approval of their prescribing psychologist’s license applications. What is truly impressive about IPA’s success is its visionary commitment to ensuring that graduate students could receive the clinical training at the Pre-Doctoral level. In essence, IPA became the catalyst for the recent endorsement of this educational evolution by the APA Committee on the Designation of Training Programs in Clinical Psychopharmacology. From a policy perspective, the sooner this critical training becomes readily available, throughout the country, the more significant the support will be for the training of prescribing psychologists within psychology’s next generation of clinicians, researchers, and educators. As the national elections approach, at least eight Democratic physicians are running for Congress as first-time candidates. Are any of your members running for local, state, or federal office? Aloha,
Pat DeLeon, former APA President – Division 31 – September, 2018
