Division 20 President John Cavanaugh presided over the meeting and members attending were Carolyn Aldwin, Jane Berry, Cameron Camp, Barry Edelstein, Joan Erber, Karen Hooker, Peter Lichtenberg, Michael Marsiske, Lisa McGuire, Sara Honn Qualls, Anderson Smith, Judith Sugar, Linda Teri, Susan Krauss Whitbourne and Rachel Whitmer. APA staff attending were Patricia Kobor, Nina Levitt and Jill Reich. Dr. Cavanaugh called the meeting to order and the minutes from the August 10, 1996 Executive Board meeting in Toronto were approved.
Dr. Camp reported that as of this month Division 20 has approximately $25,000 in cash reserves and is projected to have a balanced budget for this year (Attachment A).
Dr. Qualls reported that she is in the process of contacting possible workshop presenters for continuing education activities for the 1997 APA Convention. Possible sites for the training are also being explored.
Dr. Marsiske is in the process of updating the Division 20 e-mail network list. The issue of whether and how the Division should post membersí names and addresses on the WWW were discussed. APA has a policy that people need to be able to opt out of having information pertaining to them being posted on the web and must get permission to do so from each member. It was suggested that including a form in the Division 20 newsletter that members could complete and mail back to Dr. Marsiske might be an effective method for updating the network list and giving permission to post their names on the WWW. Additionally there was discussion of the membership expertise areas database and the mailback form could be used to solicit that information as well. Dr. Marsiske encouraged individuals, laboratories, and departments with home pages to contact him via the Division 20 network so that their pages can be linked and accessed from the Division 20 website.
Dr. Berg will be organizing a symposium on issues related to teaching adult development and aging for the APA Annual Convention. This will be the third year that the education committee has organized such a symposium. These symposia are targeted towards a broad audience and the goal is to help others incorporate adult development and aging materials into their courses. Current initiatives the education committee is working on includes compiling and updating information on textbooks in adult development and aging, continuing to add to the syllabus library (especially graduate-level courses), and providing a list of videotape resources in adult development and aging.
Dr. Berry reported on planning activities for the Annual conference. An event to recognize the 50th Anniversary of Divisions is being planned. Dr. Berry is going to invite a person important to Division 20ís history to give a retrospective presentation and invite a former student of that person to give a prospective presesentation. As mentioned, another teaching symposium is being planned. Dr. Berry solicited submissions on all topics.
Rachel Whitmer, the Graduate Student Representative, announced plans for student sessions at the Convention.
Division 20 will be prominent on the Annual Program this year,
and be able to leverage hours, because of the Presidential Miniconvention
on Aging. Sara Qualls is organizer for the Miniconvention. We
will have 26 program hours plus 17 hours for the Miniconvention.
The plan is to have symposia on the following topics: 1) social
relations; 2) depression; 3) emotion; 4) families and caregiving;
5) health; 6) psychotherapy; 7) memory; and 8) neuropsychology.
Each symposium will be structured around a dialogue of the topic
area by a mainstream ìnon-agingî expert in the topic
area and an aging expert in the topic area. It should promote
an exciting interchange of ideas and move research in these areas
forward. Dr. Qualls is in the process of contacting presenters.
The Miniconvention will be all day Saturday and Sunday. There
will also be an open forum on aging at the Convention featuring
Norman Abeles and Martin Seligman. And finally, Dr. Richard Hoades,
Director of the National Institute on Aging, will be invited to
the Convention to talk about research opportunities in aging.
The view was expressed that the newsletter should emphasize that
the 1997 Convention will be an important one to attend because
there will be so many program hours devoted to aging.
The Board of Educational Affairs at APA is in the process of determining what areas of psychology meet the qualifications for being deemed a ìproficiencyî area and which can be considered a ìspecialtyî area. These designations have implications for current and future geropsychologists.
Section II (Clinical Geropsychology) of APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) and Division 20 jointly formed the Interdivisional Task Force on Qualifications for Practice in Clinical and Applied Geropsychology to address issues pertinent to the professional practice of geropsychology. This task force is co-chaired by George Niederehe and Linda Teri. Dr. Teri described the scope of the issues and the time spent by task force members in reaching consensus formulations about training that is necessary for competency in geropsychology. The draft report of this task force is on the Division 20 web page and comments are currently being solicited. The deadline for receiving comments on the document is January 10, 1997.
Dr. Edelstein described the credentialling process and emphasized the need for certification for psychologists working with older adultsóespecially for reimbursement mechanisms in managed care. There are minimal criteria needed to guide training and education. The distinction between a specialty and a proficiency is not yet entirely clear within APA. The application process for specialty status is more complicated than that for proficiency. A group might apply for a proficiency early on in the development of a field, then later on that field might receive specialty designation. There is also the consideration that sub-specialties might be developed in the future. While specialty designation remains a future goal for geropsychology, the task force members want to be certain that, at the very least, proficiency designation be approved. Dr. Niederehe prepared an application for proficiency earlier this year. March 1, 1997 is the deadline for application for specialty. The task force committee is looking for input from Division 20.
Anderson Smith voiced his strong support for the application and stated that Division 20 members wanted to have input on these issues. Dr. Smith thought that proficiency would not be as controversial as specialty in geropsychology at this point in time. There was consensus that the best way to proceed may be to get the proficiency designation and later apply for specialty. Dr. Cavanaugh asked for a formal verbalization of Division 20 support for the proficiency application. Dr. Lichtenberg offered to send the proficiency application document to anyone who requested it.
There was a formal Division 20 motion: Dr. Camp moved that the executive committee of Division 20 approve co-sponsorship (with Section II of Division 12) of the application for proficiency for geropsychology and to appoint a sub-committee to oversee the process. Dr. Berry seconded the motion and there was unanimous approval by the executive committee.
Jill Reich, Executive Director of the Education Directorate, described the goals and objectives of the Education Directorate and reported on recent activities. Dr. Reich argued that changes in demographics and political forces will result in massive changes in higher education, similar in scope to those seen in healthcare. Education directorate members are trying to plan for the trends and position APA strategically to best meet the needs of psychology educators and students. These plans include all levels of education from high school to postdoctoral training. Activities revolve around quality and communication enhancement and finding a unique place for these activities within the national organization. Dr. Reich solicited questions and input from the executive committee.
Dr. Whitbourne expressed the need to work more closely with divisions on APA conference scheduling so that conflicts could be minimized. Dr. Smith asked about linkages with the American Psychological Society since the academic psychologists in that organization have strong interests in teaching. Dr. Reich stated that the Education Directorate aims to be supportive of, not competitive with, other organizations.
Nina Levitt, Director for Education Policy, Public Policy Office, distributed the Education Advocacy Update (see Attachment B). Dr. Levitt discussed the Reauthorization of Higher Education Act in the context of pressure from a Republican Congress to limit programs. This reauthorization comes every 10 years so itís important that language in the act includes Psychology as a science and as a health profession because this has funding implications for students. Funding for graduate education has diminished recently, and there are some in Congress who do not support funding graduate education (except for loan assistance). Judith Sugar suggested that the National Association for Graduate and Professional Students be included in lobbying efforts, as they are an active group willing to lobby representatives on their own behalf.
Patricia Kobor distributed the Science Advocacy Report (see Attachment
C) and discussed the Public Policy Action Network (PPAN). A booklet,
entitled, A Psychologistís Guide to Federal Advocacy
is available from APA for those who wish to get involved in advocacy
efforts. Dr. Kobor encouraged scientists to apply for grants
this year, as funding for NIA has been increased. However, with
efforts to reach a balanced budget by 2002 discretionary spending
will need to be cut in future years and NIA may not fare so well
in future budgets. Dr. Kobor reported that the Director of the
Division of Research Grants wants more behavioral science expertise.
Changes in the peer review system at NIH are also being discussed
and input is currently being solicited.
Dr. Cavanaugh reported that a conference sponsored by APEC on the future of psychology is being planned for Fall, 1997. Sandy Peterson is the organizer and major topics will be internships in psychology and the job market. Dr. Cavanaugh advocated for Division 20 to have a prominent presence at this conference. Funding for this conference is already in place. Executive committee members expressed support for having some involvement in the conference. Dr. Whitbourne offered to be the contact person.
Dr. Cavanaugh had not heard from this committee. He said that he would contact APA and/or members of this committee (chaired by Dr. M. Powell Lawton) to find out the results of their September meeting.
Dr. McGuire submitted a written report (see Attachement D) showing that 27 new members and 15 new student members had been added to Division 20 since August. Dr. McGuire is also in the process of re-designing the membership brochure to include the WWW page, information about free student membership for the first year, and space for an e-mail address to be included. Suggestions for any aspect of membership recruitment were solicited.
Dr. Alex Zautra will serve as the new liaison between Divisions 38 and 20.
There has not been a Council meeting since the last Executive Committee meeting so there is nothing new to report.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:17.
Respectfully submitted,
December 16, 1996
To direct comments about the information contained in these pages, please write to marsiske@ufl.edu