NOTEBOOK - New York State Psychological Association

www.NYSPA.org
APA Council Rep
George Northrup, PhD
NYSPA Member Since 1988
Dianne Polowczyk, PhD
NYSPA Member Since 1993
New York is represented by two
representatives to the APA Council of
Representatives. These representatives
meet two times a year to decide on
policy for APA. This report is from the
meeting held in conjunction with the
APA Annual Convention, held in August
in Orlando, FL this year.
Wednesday began early with Caucus
meetings starting at 7:00 am, an eighthour
Council meeting, and then more
caucus meetings. Besides being a
mountain range in Asia, the Caucuses
are various interest groups seeking to
influence APA decision making. This
day was the Association of Practicing
Psychologists, which has begun a
concerted effort to address the shortage
of internship positions. We were
impressed with its agenda, which also
includes media campaigns on behalf
of psychologists in private practice.
Back to the Council meeting. Two
very significant motions were
approved. One was a resolution on
the effectiveness of psychotherapy,
which was overwhelmingly affirmed
(153 Yes, 2 No, 1 Abstain). This
resolution has been several years in
the works, vetted and re-vetted obsessively.
Though the acknowledgement
by APA of psychotherapy’s value is
absurdly overdue (say, 50 years or so),
it is nonetheless a historic moment
reflecting, we think, a shift in the right
direction and away from the “better
find another niche in which to
practice” mentality.
The second resolution was the
Internship Stimulus Package, a threeyear,
$3 million effort intended not to
help create new internship positions
per se, but perhaps several hundred
newly accredited internship slots.
Gaining accreditation by APA is
expensive for programs sponsoring
interns, and this package addresses
that problem while also helping to
build some momentum for practice
issues. We both supported the package,
George addressed the Council
pointing out that much more needs to
be done on behalf of newly minted
psychologists burdened with historic
levels of educational debt and facing
1980s’ level managed care reimbursements
as well as declining Medicare
rates.
Much of the afternoon on Wednesday
was taken up with the Good Governance
Project, an ambitious attempt to
reform APA governance by making it
more nimble and better able to prioritize
its work. Council broke into
small groups to discuss various reform
scenarios (essentially incremental,
moderate, and drastic), with an emerging
consensus somewhere between
moderate and drastic. Council members
were clearly excited about the
possibility of making meaningful
changes that would allow the
Association to focus more on “big
ideas” and less on rubber stamping
routine administrative issues.
Budget and Finance. APA expects
to spend about $116 million this year,
with a $400 thousand budget surplus.
It uses less than half of its real estate
income of $8.6 million for operating
expenses, with the bulk of this income
going into the long term stock and
bond investment portfolio, now worth
about $67 million. Revenue is
expected to grow next year, with
another surplus likely.
Public Education. APA is poised to
publicize passage of the resolution on
the effectiveness of psychotherapy
with a press release next week and a
five week campaign just before and
during October, which is Depression
Awareness month. Another initiative
(“Psychology: Science in Action”)
will promote our image as a hard
science, trying to update the public’s
impression that psychology is mainly
a health service profession. APA
pledges not to de-emphasize practice
issues even as it raises the profile on
scientific research.
At Friday’s meeting, Council was
briefed on the development of the
World Health Organization’s ICD-11.
Psychologists have been playing a
major role in this revision, with active
support by APA. One source indicated
ICD-11 will displace DSM-V in
2014. Presidential citations were
awarded to two psychologists spearheading
the effort.
Council voted overwhelmingly to
recommend changing APA bylaws to
offer Council seats and voting
privileges to the four ethnic minority
psychological associations (Asian-
American, Black, Indian [Native
American], and Latina/o). Twice previously,
the vote by APA membership
has narrowly fallen short of the 2/3
majority required to adopt this bylaws
change. The problem may be with the
“Pro” and “Con” statements that
ordinarily must accompany a bylaws
revision; these apparently suggest to
the voting membership that an issue is
hotly contested when that may not be
the case at all.
Once upon a time, Council attempted
to amend the bylaws to delete the
“Pro” ”Con” requirement. This change
also had a “Pro” and “Con” statement
attached to it and was, predictably,
also defeated by the membership.
Council received a lengthy Report on
Educational Disparities from a Task
Force that had been created by former
APA President Melba Vasquez.
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