Hello, Division 20 members,
We, your Division 20 Representatives to APA Council, convened February 20–21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Again, this year, we had the opportunity to participate in Advocacy Day on the Hill, with issues directly related to aging. We were advocating for NIH and NSF funding, ensuring psychological science is a part of the AI research funding, and asking for co-sponsorship for the ADAPT act—which would allow advanced psychology trainees to see and bill Medicare recipients (Maggie was so excited!).
During our two days of council meetings, we passed several important pieces of APA policy. There was much discussion and appreciation for the current social climate in which we are all working and trying to pass association policy. The following are highlights of the work done during the February 2026 council session.
Great news for Division 20! Via unanimous consent, council passed the revised Resolution on Palliative Care, which intended to emphasize the often underutilized but vital role of psychologists in palliative care systems. The resolution outlines a framework for implementation that includes developing practice guidelines for palliative and end-of-life care, increasing research and education that supports mental health in palliative and end-of-life care, and endorsing public policies that provide behavioral health services for patients and their caregivers across the lifespan. Many thanks to our colleagues (President Becky Allen, Cecilia Poon, and many others) for shepherding this process and especially to the members of the task force for the hard work in updating this resolution!
After a robust discussion, with a vote of 127–37 with five abstentions, council adopted as policy a 2026 Resolution on Antisemitism. The resolution updates the 2007 APA Resolution on Anti-Semitic and Anti-Jewish Prejudice, strengthening APA’s policy framework to reflect developments since 2007. The new policy includes a robust set of action items to materially enhance APA’s response and education efforts to address the dramatic rise and evolving forms of antisemitism.
Several additional policies were passed in this session, including the revised Standards of Accreditation for Programs in Health Service Psychology, Resolution on Sexual Health Education, Resolution on Prioritizing Behavioral Health Needs of Rural Communities, Policy Statement on Integrating Psychological Science into Major Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery and Advancing Disaster, Behavioral Health Training and Response for Psychologists, and an update to the Policies and Procedures Manual for the APA Approval of Sponsors of Continuing Education for Psychologists.
We will post on the Division 20 listserv when links are available to these new policies via the APA website. If you have any questions about the items reviewed during this session, want to talk about upcoming policy, or other council issues, please reach out!
Maggie Syme, PhD, MPH
Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR)
Massachusetts General Hospital
Grace Caskie, PhD
Associate Professor
College of Education
Lehigh University