The Community and State Hospitals Section has continued to meet on a monthly basis. I want to send out a belated thank you to Jennifer Snyder, PhD, for a wonderful, if tumultuous, year as our past president of Div. 18. Snyder gave an engaging Presidential Address at APA’s virtual convention in August titled, “Things to do until the pharmacist arrives” in which she discussed several ways that psychologists can contribute to the treatment and support of people who are experiencing acute mental illness, both before and during initiation of medication. At the APA conference, Snyder was also awarded Div. 18’s Michael S. Neale Award for her outstanding work serving individuals with serious mental illness. Well-deserved, Dr. Snyder!
Also, a huge thank you to Sarah Robertson, PhD, and Katie Davenport, PhD, for their efforts over the past year serving as the social chairs for the APA conference for Div. 18. This requires countless hours and organization skills. They really did an amazing job putting together our division’s program, responding to presenters’ questions, and facilitating presentations (including monitoring for possible zoom bombs). Hats off to them.
It’s been wonderful to see members of our section contribute to leadership in Div. 18, and to connect to other sections on issues that are important to all of us, including the treatment of trauma in the SMI population (stay tuned for webinars in this area).
We are currently working on putting together a survey for psychologists who work in state and community hospital settings to better understand the challenges and opportunities that we all experience in these settings. It’s been more than 30 years since Geczy, Sultenfuss and Donat (1990) published their article, “Psychologists in state mental hospitals: Problems and recommendations.” We are looking to update this article based on our findings (see reference below).
If you would like to be more involved in our section, please join us for our monthly calls. You can send me an email, and I will send you a link to our meeting with the date and time of our next meeting.
References
Geczy, B., Sultenfuss, J.F. and Donat, D.C. (1990). Psychologists in state mental hospitals: Problems and recommendations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 21(5), 392–397. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.21.5.392