Denise C. Park

University of Michigan

Institute of Gerontology

The APA Council of Representatives met in Washington D.C. on February 16-18. As always, it was an interesting experience with a considerable amount of business conducted. The underlying issue that dominated Council was the declining income of psychologists in practice due to the emergence of managed care. It is increasingly the case that practice psychologists are losing substantial amounts of income if they are not part of a network of providers and this appears to be a growing threat to the profession.

To address this issue, Council voted to continue the Public Education Campaign which is designed to present practice psychology to the public. Sample radio and television spots were played to Council that the APA had developed, and there was general agreement that they were professional and effectively represented psychology to the general public. Some of you may have seen the spot purchased by APA in Newsweek advertising the advantages of psychological services to the public. A total of 1 million dollars a year for five years has been recommended to be devoted to this campaign. It needs to be recognized that this is a relatively small impact budget for a national media campaign, and it is hoped that some state associations and other interested organizations will also purchase media time, using the materials developed by the APA.

One major bright spot at Council was a special dues reduction in APA for members of other scientific societies, most notably the American Psychological Society. In an effort to encourage academic/scientific psychologists to maintain membership in APA, members of APS or any other organization that is part of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, will receive a 25% dues reduction for membership in APA. This is a substantial reduction and was strongly supported by members of Council. Both the Board of Directors and the Board of Scientific Affairs supported this recommendation which was presented to Council by Leona Aiken, Division 5 representative.

It was at this Council meeting, that Dorothy Cantor also took over as president of APA, succeeding Bob Resnick who has worked tirelessly on behalf of psychology in his role as president. I would like to extend thanks to Bob for his interest in and support of aging issues within the APA. Aging was an important focus of the presidential miniconvention and Bob also helped establish the APA Task Force on Aging. I know Dorothy will do an outstanding job as president and extend congratulations to her on behalf of Division 20.

I must confess concern at the increasing focus of Council on issues of little interest to academic psychologists, both clinical and nonclinical. I believe this concerns many people, including thoughtful practitioners and the APA leadership. The structure of Council is such that due to the vast numbers of members in practice, representatives of practice have a high amount of representation on Council. The number of scientists on Council is small and the issues that concern academics are not a major focus of the Council at large. In retrospect, I think it was unfortunate that the reorganization effort of APA several years ago was not successful which would have offered science a more substantial governing role within the APA. I think it is important for academic psychologists to maintain membership in APA and to support the outstanding efforts of the Science Directorate and the Board of Scientific Affairs. I am especially concerned because I believe scientists are financing a substantial portion of APA revenues--publications account for nearly half of the APA operating budget, and it is largely scientists who contribute to journals and other publications. On the bright side, I would like to say that I believe that APA is extraordinarily well-managed by extremely talented people and it is always good news to look at our budgets and assets, and see that we are financially healthy due to wise investments and money management. Some younger members may not know that APA was on the brink of financial disaster about 10 years ago.

APA Central Office has always been very important to Division 20 and I think we have accomplished many things with the help of APA. I urge all of you to play as active a role as you can in APA affairs. Please encourage your colleagues to join APA if they are not a member, and above all, encourage your students to join and play an active role in the association and the division. As the population of the United States' age increases, I think that Division 20 will play an increasingly central role in the APA and it is important that we maintain strength and visibility through a strong, active, and growing membership.

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