APA’s Practice Leadership Conference (PLC) in Washington, D.C., (formerly State Leadership Conference) is always an energizing event. PLC brings together state leaders from across the country to learn from each other, enhance leadership skills and advocate for psychology.
Representatives include students, early career psychologists, diversity delegates, state association president elects and presidents, federal advocacy coordinators, Executive Directors and directors of professional affairs, just to name a few. It’s a chance to learn from other states, and network with a wide variety of psychologist leaders.
This year marks the first year for PLC under the new integrated advocacy model. Members of the new Advocacy Coordinating Committee (ACC), which will set advocacy priorities for the organization with input from stakeholders, were present, including Co-Chairs Jennifer Kelly, PhD, and Tony Puentes, PhD. In addition, leaders from the public interest, education and science communities were invited to participate, and the new Chief Advocacy Officer Katherine McGuire was involved. I hope they felt welcome and were able to feel the energy and see the effectiveness of PLC in engaging state leaders from across the country.
There were efforts to integrate education, science, and public interest issues into the conference. A great example was the plenary with APA President-Elect Sandy Shullman, PhD, discussing leadership needs for psychology and psychologists as we advocate. In addition, delegates were given the opportunity to share information about the Argosy crisis or consider other public interest issues during their lobbying on Tuesday.
Div. 31 has a strong presence at PLC. Just a few of the Div. 31 highlights include the awards ceremony on Sunday where Div. 31 President Bruce Nystrom presented Div. 31’s 2019 conference awards.
Div. 31 also led the way with workshop programming. I was privileged to lead a panel on “A State Toolkit for Integrated Care” with Roseann Fish Getchell, Doug Tynan, Traci Bolander and Paul Korte. It was a packed room full of great energy! State leaders were eager to share resources about legislation, training models, and reimbursement strategies for integrated care.
Other highlights were the orientations, including the group discussions for state association presidents-elect. PLC has long provided leadership training for state psychological associations including their incoming presidents, executive directors, and directors of professional affairs.
They discussed issues such as advocacy needs in the states. These orientations provide a space for states to learn from each other and APA, but also for the states to communicate back to APA the crucial issues they are facing.
But the capstone of PLC is always the Hill visits. This year psychologists advocated for three substantial issues: 1) the Medicare Mental Health Access Act (H.R. 884) which adds psychologists to the physician definition, 2) the Mental Health Telemedicine Expansion Act (H.R. 1301) which would broaden ability to use telehealth for mental health services in Medicare and 3) general protections for mental health and addiction treatment under Medicare including maintaining Medicaid expansion and essential health benefits. This practice advocacy is crucial to maintaining psychologists’ role in the healthcare system. Both bills discussed had bipartisan support. It was my pleasure to visit my representative’s office (Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio) as well as Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, to discuss these issues.
The advocacy issues discussed are a good example of how practice issues can also be social justice issues. For example, Medicaid expansion has enabled thousands of low-income Ohioans to get insured and access mental health resources that otherwise would not. The unified and focused agenda at these visits is a strength of APA PLC. It will be interesting to see how PLC evolves as APA moves into its new integrated advocacy model.
The APA staff does a stellar job in organizing and executing this conference. Dan Abrahamson and Susie Lazaroff in the State Advocacy Office are excellent. Doug Walter and his team from Government Relations do a terrific job of briefing psychologists and preparing them for the visits to the Hill. The Legal and Regulatory staff, led by Shirley Higuchi, provide excellent resources on issues such as Medicaid, telepsychology, HIPAA and more. I was impressed with the thoughtful touches, such as morning yoga, courtesy of one of the conference sponsors, and donation of unused toiletries and food to charity thanks to the thoughtful work of Tammy Barnes in APA’s Practice Directorate.
It was a bit of a bittersweet PLC for those of us on Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP), which will sunset in June related to the new integrated advocacy model. CAPP has been the governance body highly connected to PLC. As CAPP draws to an end, there is work being done to transition its non-advocacy functions such as PLC, state grants, and other c(6) practice activities to other governance groups. CAPP is working hard to make sure the practice voice and services will continue as transformation evolves. I’d like to thank the hard working members of CAPP who attended PLC and continue to serve: Lindsey Buckman (CAPP chair), Peter Oppenheimer, Traci Cipriano, Jo Linder Crowe, Paul Kettlewell, Tyler Bradstreet and Giselle Haas.
Given the changes with CAPP, I believe that Div. 31 will only increase its membership value and importance as a voice for state leaders to and from APA. CAPP has always been a strong voice for state issues and support, including the legislative and organizational grants and a standing voting seat for CESSPA members. Additionally, CAPP has served as a formal communications mechanism for state leaders to APA. Div. 31 serves some similar roles, and can increase this role as CAPP sunsets.
When psychologists ask me what does their APA membership do for them, Practice Leadership Conference is one of the shining examples that I can share with them, where I can share that APA is bringing hundreds of psychologists from across the country to fight for psychology and psychologists. I hope it continues to be a strong voice for psychologists and state leaders in the years to come.