Student Task Force Blog

Regular blog postings on students' issues and concerns.

Claudette Antuna, the chair of the Division 31 Student Task Force, forwarded an announcement that clarifies President Obama's executive order regarding so many people within our communities who are at risk for deportation. The clarification follows:
 
To: Washington State Alliance for Equal Justice Leadership Group

As most of you probably heard, President Obama announced this past Friday that his administration would be granting a temporary form of immigration protection known as deferred action to certain undocumented individuals who were brought to the United States before the age of sixteen, have been living in the US for five years or more and who meet other requirements.... In order to address some of the initial questions, we have prepared a community advisory in English and Spanish (PDF, 233KB) that provides basic information about the announcement. The primary message we want to ensure the community understands is that the administration has not yet announced or put in place a process to accept applications for this new initiative, so no one who is not currently in deportation (removal) proceedings can apply yet. We anticipate that the process will be announced sometime during August but we will send out an announcement when the process is in place. The advisory provides our recommendations on what people who may qualify for this program can do at this point.

Please let me know if you have any questions. We anticipate having additional information in the coming days which we will share with all of you.

Jorge L. Barón, Executive Director
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
615 Second Ave, Suite 400
Seattle, WA 98104
Telephone: (206) 957-8609
Fax: (206) 587-4025

Please read the report by the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration initiated by former APA President Melba Vazquez. The executive summary of the report (PDF, 408KB) and the full report are available.
 
A web-based resource "Psychology of Immigration 101" describes this new area of emerging practice. An APAGS webinar on the topic, "Immigration: Things you must know for research, training, and practice," is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15, 12:30 to 2 p.m.

For more information, please contact Efua Andoh at (202) 336-6045.

Throughout the next months, the Division 31 Student Task Force blog will broadcast "just-in-time" information about leadership and advocacy skills, and advocacy efforts that affect students.

For instance, Dr. Benjamin, President of the Division, and a first-year member (of a three-year term) of the APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) just announced that BEA has requested that APA authorize three million dollars over a period of three years to provide seed funding to increase the number of APA accredited internship programs. Such funds will be used to assist programs in the application process for APA accreditation including application and site visit fees, program consultation, administrative and supervisor support, intern stipends/benefits or other direct costs in seeking accreditation.

Priorities will be given to those applicants that (1) expand the number of positions, (2) serve underserved populations, and (3) prepare psychologists for the 21st Century health care system, especially for integrated primary care and work in community health centers. BEA recommends collaborating with APPIC in this capacity building effort, and anticipates this program will have a positive impact on the internship imbalance.

Our division is on the vanguard of helping to fix this crisis. Members of our Division will need to lobby the members of the APA BOD and COR in order to change the existing limited efforts that have been meted out to end the internship crisis. More about who to contact and when will be posted later this year.

This policy change will help considerably. In addition, stay tuned for more information about changes in the Commission of Accreditation procedures that also will ease the internship crisis. Both sets of changes will prepare our internship programs to bid and provide services to those who will need behavioral care under the Affordable Care Act (that will open services to 40 million more people). Remember that unless the internship has accreditation, it would not be eligible for reimbursement from federal programs.