APA's 126th Annual Convention: The 12,300+ who attended our annual convention this August in San Francisco were pleasantly reminded during President Jessica Henderson Daniel's remarkable Opening Session why many of us chose psychology – to serve society and help make the world a better place for all. Hawaii colleagues were ever present. Former Hawaii Psychological Association (HPA) President Jill Oliveira Gray received the Division 31 Outstanding Psychologist award; Sunday morning, she described the importance of Expanding Behavioral Health Services in Rural Settings Through Innovations in Training, especially involving Native Hawaiians. Another former HPA President, Kate Brown, moderated the heart-warming discussion by Jessica's Citizen Psychologists who have throughout their impressive careers "given psychology away" to their local communities.
Judi Steinman, President-Elect of Division 55, received the Division's Psychopharmacology Educator of the Year award. During the convention she participated in several panels addressing the transformational movement towards training clinical psychopharmacology (RxP) at the pre-doctoral level. "HPA maintains its commitment to pursuing prescriptive authority for specially trained psychologists in our state. Our ongoing challenges with underserved rural and overpopulated homeless communities across our islands highlight the continued, urgent need for better mental health care access. Increasing numbers of local students have expressed interest in becoming prescribing psychologists for their underserved communities and will be fully engaged in the effort to move legislation forward." One of the major themes that was expressed throughout the RxP presentations was that the key to successful advocacy was to develop grass roots community support and consistently be client, rather than guild-focused. This approach has always been HPA's strength.
Military Medicine: One of the most fascinating aspects of working at the Uniformed Services University (USU) is interacting on a daily basis with dedicated, experienced faculty and the truly inspiring next generation of our nation's federal health care providers. Medical and Clinical Psychology graduate student Sade Soares is beginning her clinical internship this fall at the Tripler Army Medical Center. She is a 2010 graduate of West Point. Her husband and two very young children are Native Hawaiian. Not surprisingly, her dissertation focuses upon the relationship between Native Hawaiian cultural identify and health/wellness.
The military (including its family members) possesses its own unique culture, strengths, and challenges. Maintaining Readiness is a critical responsibility and the visionary faculty at the USU Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing have developed an impressive two week series operational curricula – Military Mountain Medicine, Cold Weather Medicine, and Dive Medicine. Learning the most up-to-date clinical skills is absolutely necessary; but it is not sufficient. Future providers must also be physically, emotionally, and operationally ready. Matt Welder, Ian Wedmore, and Matt D'Angelo have taken the lead in embedding psychology and mental health nursing students into their training modules in order to provide them with "real life" experiences in learning how to appropriately treat military service members as part of an interprofessional team, in what will often be extraordinarily austere and hostile environments. Hannah Martinez and Julia Garza participated in their most recent module. Their enthusiastic observations:
"It was a lot like drinking water from a fire hose, but we learned so much. Not only did we gain medical knowledge that makes us a more valuable member of an operational team, but we made interprofessional connections that will last for the rest of our careers. Having to ask what the definition of medical terms are a couple dozen times a day really lends itself to getting to know the people around you! It was also amazing to be able to show other medical providers the utility of psychology and emotional readiness in an operational environment. We were able to answer questions, give unique perspectives, and we even presented on psychological topics to the entire class (for example, cognitive deficits related to insomnia and high altitude psychosis). Our leader [Matt Welder] believes in what we do – he is not scared to correct people who think emotional readiness isn't important, which is so reinforcing to a couple of 'shrinks' among some of the top medical minds in the military!" (Hannah).
"There was such a steep learning curve while we were there but we learned so much in the short amount of time we were there. We were both ecstatic that we passed the final exam on the last day because we lacked the initial medical knowledge several of the other individuals in the class had. I think it also gave me an even deeper respect for the medical providers and individuals who provide care within austere conditions, such as on deployment or within a wilderness environment. It was pretty amazing being able to interact with the wide range of providers and individuals that work within Special Operations. It was also really nice to hear our leader talk about how much he valued emotional readiness to prepare service members for operational settings. Being at the Mountain Medicine course also gave us several opportunities to discuss our role as a behavioral health provider with some of the service members that work with the Special Operation teams. There were also a couple of former USU graduates from the medical school that happened to be at the course and one of them repeatedly talked about the utility our field can offer to the teams.
"In both the public and private healthcare environments, there has been increasing emphasis on interprofessional care within the larger field of psychology and this trend has been especially seen within the military through the number of increased embedded and operational billets. This course provided exposure to interprofessional care by having us working closely with medics, physician assistants, physicians, and advanced practice nurses (APRNs). I appreciated that the other students were very willing to hear about my clinical experiences through a psychology perspective, and they were also willing to share their various medical experiences. Interacting with individuals that have worked within Special Operational settings gave us both an intriguing perspective on how psychologists could potentially be utilized to help ensure deployment readiness, whether that be helping service members sleep more efficiently or helping other providers be more aware of potential behavioral health concerns. More broadly, the course gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of the amount of detail involved in helping to provide care and rescue services to members in austere geographical locations. It was especially challenging because it forced me to be able to handle potential crises while in an unfamiliar environment. But, developing this skill is vital. It is important for behavioral health providers to have a real understanding of the conditions their patients may have been exposed to while working within an operational setting. We both hope to be able to attend Dive Medicine next year" (Julia). Most appropriately, during our San Francisco convention USU's Jeff Goodie presented the APF Rosalee G. Weiss Lecture for Outstanding Leaders in Psychology – "Integrating Behavioral Health in Primary Care and in Communities Following Tragedies: Lessons Learned." Jeff is a Commissioned Officer in the USPHS.
We were personally particularly pleased to learn that just after our convention, during the U.S. Senate passage of the Labor-HHS-Education FY'19 Appropriations bill (the DOD/LHHS Minibus), that Hawaii's Senator Brian Schatz was successful in having an amendment adopted which directs SAMHSA to assess the ongoing mental health impact on the children and families affected by the recent volcano eruptions (VOG). His amendment calls for a needs assessment and for developing mental health crisis recovery plans targeted to these unique circumstances. Aloha,
Pat DeLeon, former APA President – Hawaii Psychological Association – September, 2018
Sent from my iPhone
