At this year’s Council meeting, Jennifer Margrett served in place of Patricia Parmelee. She was dearly missed, but we were fortunate that Jennifer, Div. 20 president-elect, was able to attend the meeting.
The February council meeting kicked off with a presentation by APA President Rosie Phillips Davis, highlighting her work on the presidential initiative of understanding the psychology of poverty. council’s work began with the presentation by CEO Arthur Evans of the new strategic plan of the American Psychological Association/American Psychological Association Services, Inc. To summarize, the strategic goals include utilizing psychology to make a positive impact on critical societal issues, elevate the public’s understanding of psychology, to prepare the discipline and profession of psychology for the future and to strengthen APA’s standing as an authoritative voice for psychology. The plan was developed and refined through a lengthy process of receiving input and feedback from APA governance bodies, members and nonmembers as well. The next step will be to operationalize the plan, which will also be done in a consultative manner and will include measurable markers with accountability. At every meeting of Council moving forward, there will be regular reporting, there will be a webpage to track progress and consultation with members to tap into expertise. There will be a series of “conversations” scheduled to monitor progress toward the achievement of the strategic goals in the years moving forward. As noted by Jennifer, the new APA strategic presents an opportunity for Div. 20 to revisit our collective goals and alignment with the larger organization.
The next item of business was the vote in favor of receiving the report of the Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) Task Force on developing a blueprint for APA accreditation of master’s programs in health service psychology (HSP) in areas where APA already accredits. BEA and the Board of Professional Affairs will now establish a task force to articulate competencies for masters-level HSP. council will then develop the program accreditation standards for masters-level HSP programs with opportunities for stakeholders to provide comment, with the final step being that council will be asked to vote on these standards.
A resolution that gathered considerable attention from our colleagues in the child and adolescent area concerned the physical discipline of children by parents. The resolution highlights the negative effects of physical punishment and spanking specifically on children. Further, the resolution notes the need for increased public awareness and education about alternative forms of discipline and supports funding on this topic including its causes and effects and encourages increased efforts by APA to increase positive parenting supports for underserved groups. The motion was approved with an 88 percent vote.
Saturday morning was spent engaged in an exercise to discuss moving on from the strategic plan. Breakout tables considered two questions intended to inform these next steps. Our own table focused on using APA to find practical ways to bring science and practice into a more collaborative and functional manner.
Another important agenda item was the rule regarding the divisions issuing statements on matters of policy. This rule provides that divisions can issue public statements on matters that are consistent with council policy. The rule further allows divisions to issue statements on matters as to which there is no Council policy if it is a matter within the division’s own expertise and with a disclaimer that the statement is not a statement of APA policy. Only council can make APA policy. This motion was passed by a 68.9 percent majority. After the item was passed, a motion to reconsider the motion with some wording changes was approved, opening the issue up for debate, leading to an 86.9 percent vote in favor.
The budget had been presented in detail via webinars prior to Council meeting, but the live presentation had to be foregone due to illness. APA Treasurer Jean Carter shared the following summary via email:
"In 2018, annual revenues from operations were budgeted at $116M dollars, and actual revenue was $118M, with much of the additional revenue from publications, including strong sales of our great Publications Manual — surprising after the number of years it has been on the market before the regular update that we do. We also took transfers from our buildings of $5.5M, as we have done for years. We also drew liquidations from our long-term investment portfolio of a little over $5M for planned projects that have been approved by Council over a number of years. Total revenue was approximately $128 M. The yearend actuals of income over expenses were about $2M to the good and $7 M better than budgeted. Actual operating revenues were about $5M less than projected and the expenses on special projects was about $6M less than projected. Major contributors were in publishing — greater income, lower expenses; not surprising as our publishing operating is the financial driver of our Association, and it requires investing in the programs to in turn bring in income from them."
The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Depression across three cohorts from childhood to later adulthood (60 years and older), were then brought to Council for approval. The Committee on Aging had been given the opportunity to provide feedback, and Forrest Scogin was on the Guideline Development Panel.
The next major piece of business was an update on the 501(c)(6) organization, APA Services, Inc. In terms of advocacy, APA helped prevent repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and five states voted to expand Medicaid in the November 2018 election. APA also influenced fee schedule processes for Medicare and Medicaid, resulting in higher reimbursement rates for testing, psychotherapy and health and behavioral services.
The process was also initiated of seeking systematic input from across the Association, setting priorities for advocacy and a more effective infrastructure for advocacy. The Advocacy Coordinating Committee (ACC) is the vehicle for soliciting this input and to identify the need for timely and relevant APA council policies where they are lacking. The theme of their January meeting was From Many Voices, “One APA.” A new chief advocacy officer, Katherine McGuire, was appointed. As described in the Div. 20 Listserv, all APA members were encouraged to complete the advocacy priority survey by March 5 as the responses will be part of the process of preparing the year’s priorities for advocacy. This ongoing process provides our division with the opportunity to not only encourage sharing of individual member voices, but also to develop a collective voice (within our division and with partners across divisions) to advocate for issues relevant to adult development and aging
Another piece of Council business involved transitions in the Council Leadership Team (CLT) and whether there should be a change in the wording that specifies term limits that would apply to the chair-elect. Originally, this was to be limited to a one-year term, but the motion brought before Council was based on the past four years and the desire on the part of CLT to allow extension of the terms for the chair. This motion did not pass.
In other items, the 2019 Resolution on Child and Adolescent Mental Health was adopted as APA policy, replacing the 2004 Resolution. Also passed was the APA policy on a revised APA Model Education and Training Program in Psychopharmacology for prescriptive authority (RxP Model Curriculum), the APA designation criteria for education and training programs in psychopharmacology for prescriptive authority (RxP designation criteria) and the APA model legislation for prescriptive authority (RxP model legislation). The primary purpose of the RxP Model Curriculum is to provide a model for training a psychologist in the management of psychotropic medication. The intent of the Designation Criteria document is that the education and training of psychologists for prescriptive authority occur within a program with an identifiable organization, curriculum and faculty. The model legislation document serves as a prototype for drafting state legislation regulating prescriptive authority.
Full minutes of the Council meeting are posted on APA’s websiteopens in new window. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to serve the division, and please let us know if you would like any more information on Council activities.