Delaware
The Delaware Psychological Association (DPA) had a busy last few weeks of legislative session in Delaware this year. June was spent working on HB172, PSYPACT legislation. This bill makes Delaware part of a national commission that allows licensed psychologists to see patients across state lines via telehealth or to temporarily practice across state lines for up to 30 days per year (if the receiving state is also part of the commission).
With the support of Rep. David Bentz, Sen. Stephanie Hansen, the Office of the Lt. Governor, Delaware Psychological Association, Board of Examiners of Psychologists, Nemours, the Medical Society of Delaware, Mid-Atlantic Behavioral Health, National Alliance on Mental Illness and many other community partners and stakeholders, this bill passed the house and senate, and was signed by Gov. John Carney, June 27, 2019.
Thank you to all of our members who supported this bill, called your representatives, and who are helping to break down barriers to treatment.
Director of the Division of Professional Regulation for Delaware, David Mangler, and Meghan Lines, psychologist and member of the Board of Examiners for Delaware, attended the first commission meeting for PSYPACT, July 22-23, and were part of creating bylaws for the process.
We are looking forward to continuing to work with the membership of DPA and the general assembly to continue to move beneficial mental health legislation forward in the state of Delaware.
Florida
The Florida Psychological Association (FPA) has been active in moving diversity initiatives forward. In recent months, our Diversity Committee has updated its name to be “The Diversity and Cultural Competence Committee,” comprised of 10 members all representative of our state chapters. The committee is devoted to attend to recruitment and retention of members representative of diverse backgrounds and to encourage cultural competence training at local and state levels. In addition to this, two new policies have been set in place in Florida that highlight the FPA’s commitment to cultural competence and attention to diversity issues
- The chair of the Diversity and Cultural Competence Committee has been appointed as member of the FPA Continuing Education Committee in order to ensure that CEs are inclusive of research and clinical implications for working with diverse populations.
- The FPA now has a Diversity Mission Statement, which was voted on and is now considered to be FPA Policy, and is posted on our website.
Georgia
On May 19, 2019, the annual Diversity Brunch was held at the home of Jennifer F. Kelly. Rosie Davis, APA president, was the guest of honor and spoke to the group about her Deep Poverty Initiative. Approximately 50 people attended, including many students and ECPs.
Georgia Psychological Association (GPA) has named three representatives to the Deep Poverty Initiative — Amy Luna of Statesboro; Phyllis Cazaras of Tifton; and Jennifer Dean of Atlanta. These three colleagues have agreed to prepare updates for the GPA newsletter to promote knowledge and commitment among GPA members.
Iowa
The Diversity and Social Justice Committee (DSJ) of the Iowa Psychological Association (IPA) promotes the integration of awareness and advocacy for diversity and social justice through all aspects of IPA. We view ourselves as agents of social change, and our aim is to increase cultural competency on multiple ecological levels within the field of psychology, with an emphasis on Iowa. This year we started a new initiative in which we asked members to submit Diversity Profiles. These profiles are meant to be informal ways to get to know each other by sharing experiences related to our identities. Each month a member of IPA submits their Diversity Profile to the list-serv. We also offer two trainings each year where participants can earn continuing education units. We are in the process of planning a Cultural Competency Retreat for IPA members. We hope to get Melba Vasquez, PhD, as our main speaker. We also do a lot of community engagement by supporting community events. This year we had a presence at the Iowa City Pride Parade and Juneteenth Day Celebrations. The committee also attended a community forum at the African American Museum entitled: “Not Without Me! — Interfacing with the Education Process.” We hosted a viewing and discussion of “When They See Us,” a true crime-based mini-series about the “Central Park 5.” IPA puts out a quarterly newsletter called The Iowa Psychologist. Members of the DSJ committee take turns contributing pieces for the newsletter. Lastly, the DSJ committee is actively working with our executive counsel to create a diversity liaison position. This person will have a seat on the board of the executive counsel and will potentially have voting rights.
Missouri
The Missouri Psychological Association (MOPA) Diversity Committee is a standing committee in MOPA and one of its most active. It has been a prototype for other committees within our organization. Leadership by immediate past chairperson, Christi Moore was transitioned to former MOPA President Keisha Ross per the diversity committee’s succession plan in June 2019. Mingle with MOPA social events were initiated by the diversity committee and are now held in three major cities in Missouri. As a result of enthusiasm generated through this diversity-informed event and our successful Mingle with MOPA social hours, new members have been added to the committee. The committee is diversifying. It now has a member with a specialty in LGBTQ issues as well as members promoting diversity initiatives in various mental health settings. Originally based in St. Louis, the diversity committee membership is expanding throughout Missouri. A diversity officer position with voting rights has been added to our board of directors. The current officer is Jameca Falconer. Recently the committee hosted a documentary movie night with a moderated discussion afterwards. For an upcoming fall event there will be another movie event co-sponsored with a local university on the immigration issue. This will be MOPA’s first time in co-sponsoring an event with a university. Our future/long-term goals will include focusing on continued expansion of the diversity committee throughout the state, continuing to offer educational events, and the encouraging of mandated cultural competency training as part of state licensure.
Nevada
The Nevada Psychological Association (NPA) Diversity and Inclusion Committee has focused on three areas of progress this year: community involvement, education for members and integration of diversity topics in the NPA strategic plan. The growing committee has offered monthly educational resources highlighting a number of effective strategies when working with diverse populations. The committee plans to participate in an area pride celebration in order to increase community visibility. Lastly, the committee is working closely with the NPA executive board to foster more consistent utilization of diversity and inclusion practices, not as a response to incidents, but rather in an active manner that acknowledges the need for multicultural competencies to be woven into the way we practice.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is officially the 13th state to allow for a nonbinary identification option on state IDs. The governor will soon be faced with HB446, HB608 and SB263, which respectively deal with birth record amendments, nondiscrimination extensions and student nondiscrimination. We also held our 3rd Annual Trans Equality Rally on July 27, and it was a huge success.
New Jersey
The New Jersey Psychological Association (NJPA) is part of the Inter-Mental Health and Psychological Associations Coalition (IMPAC). The goal for IMPAC is for the New Jersey Chapter Association of Black Psychologists, the Latino Mental Health Association of New Jersey (formerly the Latino Psychological Association of New Jersey), and NJPA to join together as equal partners to contribute their unique educational acumen, expertise, experience and perspectives to obtain synergy as a resource to promote equality in mental health care and to zealously advocate for the mental health needs for the diverse population of the state of New Jersey. This will be accomplished by our respective organizations working together to develop initiatives to educate the public, as well as healthcare providers through training, professional presentations and mobilizing resources as needed to provide counseling and psychological services under emergent circumstances. On April 12, 2019, IMPAC held, and NJPA sponsored, a continuing education program Shine a Light on Multicultural Mental Health Awareness in New Jersey and Using a Critical Cultural Lens to Understand Barriers to Access and Utilization of Psychological Services among African American and Latinx Groups: Racial Trauma, Resilience and the Decolonization of Psychological Practice. We are currently planning our next program for March 2020.