IPA’s Advocacy committee has been busy in recent months. We followed several topics of interest through the legislative session. The advocacy committee’s priority is to follow and address practice issues related to psychologists. This is what IPA’s lobbyist, Kris Ellis, helps us to do. Some of you have wondered about social issues related to the field of psychology. The advocacy committee can consider taking action on these types of items, but we receive no help in following the relevant issues and must do so on additional volunteer time. If you haven’t taken a moment yet to familiarize yourself with our advocacy issue request form, please do so! Here’s the link: https://www.idahopsych.org/resources/Committees%20-%20Groups/Advocacy%20Committee/IPA%20ADVOCACY%20ISSUE%20REQUEST%20FORM%20-%20MASTER.pdf . Please send us any topics that you view as important to psychologists and/or related social issues, and we will consider the issue and if we have the resources to address it. If you choose to submit an issue, just remember that we may need your help implementing a plan to address it. As of today, we have received two request forms. Both issues raised are long-term issues and are working to be addressed.

The Advocacy committee has also been working on RxP. Page Haviland continues to work towards starting the ISU Psychopharmacology program. Sue Farber has played a major role this year in implementing the rules. Due to a hold on the signing of all rules, not just ours, during the legislative session, the RxP rules are tentatively in place. The committee has also been working on making sure that prescribing psychologists will be able to become credentialed and thus able to bill with Idaho insurers.

Please let me know if you are interested in serving on our committee! The more volunteers we have, the more issues we can address.

Greetings from your representative to the APA Council of Representatives.   The latest meeting was held in February 2019...the full minutes can be accessed by signing into the APA website as a member, then searching for 'Council of  Representatives'.   Towards the bottom of that page there is a list of council meeting minutes by date.

At the most recent meeting the Council overwhelmingly approved a new strategic plan, designed to better position the field of psychology to make an impact on critical societal issues and on  public understanding of psychology.  The plan's implementation is also designed to prepare the discipline and profession of psychology for the future and to strengthen APA's standing as an authoritative voice for psychology.    

In further action, the APA Council voted to receive a report regarding master's programs in health-service psychology....specifically, the report discussed possible pathways that APA can use to establish accreditation of master's programs in psychology.   To read the report:  www.apa.org/ed/governance/bea/masters-accreditation-blueprint

The Council also adopted the Resolution on Physical Discipline of Children by Parents, which recommends using alternative forms of discipline;  adopted a clinical practice guideline for the Treatment of Depression Across Three Age Cohorts (to be available on APA 's website by summer), and approved updated policies and curriculum related to psychopharmacology, among other actions.

As always, your comments and questions are welcomed!

Hello fellow IPA members!

As the student sector representative, I am gearing up for the IPA conference in May.  It looks like there will be some great programming available to students attending the conference including presentations on telehealth, ACT for the treatment of compulsive disorders, and presentations and the opportunity to meet with Dr. Puente, and more! I look forward to the student presentations and the poster session from some of my fellow ISU undergrad and graduate students.

It is also my pleasure to report that myself and 4 other students from ISU participated in the AAPIC match this year and everyone has matched and is ready to go forth on internship!

With the IPA conference approaching, this also means that we are looking for a new student sector representative! This is a one year appointment where a student member of IPA reports concerns and interests of psychology students to the board. More details about the position can be found here. Next years representative will also be encouraged to write on IPA’s new blog!

It has been my pleasure being the student representative for IPA and I look forwarding to meeting everyone at the conference!

Take a look at the following estimates for psychology students from Idaho State University entering the work force in psychology, per Joshua K. Swift, PhD, Department of Psychology, Idaho State University. He is also the author of: Premature Termination in Psychotherapy; Engaging and Retaining Clients in Psychotherapy

"I would estimate 15% in academic positions at Universities, 35% in hospital or VA settings, 35% in outpatient mental health clinics, and 15% in individual private practice."

IPA's Membership Committee has grown to include 4 active members.  These members regularly review applications received for membership and participate in monthly committee meetings over the phone.

The Committee has implemented several programs in an attempt to increase and retain members.  Included in the last mailing for new members was a list of the benefits of membership and the offer of an incentive for joining IPA.

Among the benefits of membership is a mentorship program for new members.  We are still in need of mentors!  Please contact Deb or Kendra if you are interested in serving as a mentor to new IPA members.

We will also be highlighting certain members in a "Member Spotlight" position on the website.  We will be starting with IPA members who are fellows -- members who have dedicated service to IPA and/or APA for at least five years.  If you fit this category, please apply for fellow status when you renew your membership!

A brand new initiative of the committee is recognition and appreciation of referrals for membership.  If you are a current IPA member and you recruit a new member, you will receive a token of our gratitude!

 

Hello, fellow IPA members! I hope you are enjoying our slow but sure transition to spring this year. I sure am! 

This has been a busy legislative session. Our lobbyist, Kris Ellis, kept us well-informed this session. We have had some questions about whether or not the advocacy committee will take a stance on certain legislative issues. This brought up a great question: do we follow and address practice related issues, or social issues? 

The answer is, in short, we can address both. Kris, however, is contracted to work on our practice related issues. IPA members, including the advocacy committee, can follow social issues. Please don't forget that you can submit an advocacy request at anytime on the form found on the advocacy page (https://www.idahopsych.org/AdvocacyCommittee). We have recently received two requests regarding psychological testing that we are currently following and examining IPA's options. This would be a great option for any social justice issues that you discover. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about the process and I would be happy to help. 

Happy spring! 

Part of our mission statement includes: IPA aims to promote health and human welfare by encouraging the application of psychology in individual and family life, business, law, healthcare, and education.

IPA’s Advocacy Committee was approached about endorsing Proposition 2. After careful consideration within our committee, it is apparent that expanding Medicaid in Idaho is consistent with IPA’s mission to promote health and human welfare by removing income-related barriers to behavioral and mental health treatment. As scientist practitioners, we have reviewed the available research on the impact of Medicaid expansion and have concluded that Proposition 2 is likely to improve the lives of Idahoans. Research from other states suggests that Medicaid enrollment was associated with improved mental health status, increased utilization of Medication Assisted Treatment and psychosocial treatment of opioid dependence. Further findings included increased employment and economic self-sufficiency, suggesting that improved healthcare allowed Ohio residents to be more functional in their daily lives. Specifically, over 80% of employed Ohioans with Medicaid reported that it was easier for them to work after having Medicaid coverage, and 60% of those who were unemployed with Medicaid noted that they were better able to seek out employment after having Medicaid (http://medicaid.ohio.gov/Portals/0/Resources/Reports/Annual/Group-VIII-Final-Report.pdf ). A literature review by the Kaiser Family Foundation (2018) found that states with Medicaid expansion have seen increased access to medications and services for behavioral health and mental health (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-effects-of-medicaid-expansion-under-the-aca-updated-findings-from-a-literature-review-march-2018/ ).

Questions may be directed to Lyn McArthur, Ph.D., IPA State Advocacy Chair, at lmcarthur@healthwestinc.org.

This ethical vignette was presented at the APA Annual Convention (San Francisco) at a Symposium with the APA Ethics Committee & ASPPB - "Working together: Where ethics & regulations converge " (08/12/2018).

This vignette consists of four (4) segments: (1) Introduction to Ethics; (2) A hypothetical vignette that I created called THE WEBSITE; (3) Questions pertaining to the vignette: and (4) Responses to the vignette.

The goal is to stimulate interest, enthusiasm and discussion about ethics. 

Please respond with any comments to the IPA list serve. 

I hope you are having a wonderful August! Our Advocacy Committee has been busy this year following many issues relevant to psychologists. We hope to provide more updates on a regular basis. Please see below for our most recent updates:

Federal Advocacy (by Susan Farber, Ph.D.): 

Federal advocacy has been moving along with messages from the national organization informing members about issues and updates. The biggest issue since April was around the separation of immigrant parents and children. There was a strong outcry to our legislators. I do not know how many IPA members wrote but I know of several including myself who did. Both Jim Risch and Mike Crapo listened and responded positively to our concern. They co-sponsored a bill along with others that would keep families together. I received a personally dictated and signed letter from Senator Risch stating his opposition to family separation.

RXP had major movement toward implementation in the last few months. An advisory committee of two psychiatrists appointed by the board of medicine, two psychologists – Mike Tilus and myself – appointed by the board of psychology, and a PhD level pharmacist appointed by the board of pharmacy, held many meetings with vigorous but fair discussion and have created a body of rules that now is open for public comment and will be sent to the legislature when it convenes in January. 

Page Haviland is working with the ISU department of Pharmacy to establish the masters level training program. They currently are recruiting a prescribing psychologist to oversee the program. Page has written that they expect military participation in 2020.

State Advocacy (by Lyn McArthur, Ph.D.):

The advocacy committee has continued to monitor many issues relevant to psychology in Idaho, including topics such as the progression of RxP, use/billing of Health and Behavior codes, new laws including the abortion complication reporting law, the consortium, admission privileges, and more. 

Notably, we have been working on an improved method of bringing up issues relevant to advocacy and are working on implementing this in the next few months. This should improve our tracking of issues, as well as transparency of the topics we are addressing to IPA members. We will send out an email to the list serve detailing this process once it is established and functional, which we estimate will be in a few months. . 

We are working on establishing a mental health legislative day and have been engaging Kris Ellis in this endeavor. We hope to be finalizing the details, including a date,  within the next few months. We would love to have involvement from IPA members for our legislative day and will be updating  you about this as we learn more. 

Thanks for reading! Please watch for future updates as they become available.