ACCTA (Association
of Counseling Center Training Agencies) Tony
Cellucci I recently attended the
ACCTA conference (Internships Directors within University
Counseling Centers) in New Orleans. The theme of the meeting was
“The internship Crisis and Social Justice: Implications for
Selection and Training”. Although their registration fee is
considerably higher, they tend to have meals together and have a
number of recurring themes that create a historical culture
within their organization. Included in these themes are: a
pre-conference board meeting, diversity scholar presentations,
passages through a director’s life, leadership breakfast (to
encourage committee involvement), selected items report from an annual survey, and
programming time for affinity (discussion) groups.
The keynote this year was delivered by Dr.
Nadine Kaslow (incoming APA president) and Dr. Greg Keilin who
presented on the match imbalance as a social justice issue,
proving an overview and dialoguing on the many issues involved
including APA Council’s recent resolution to push accreditation
for all programs and internships. The diversity presenters
spoke on “language mismatches in supervisory dyads” and “LBGTQ
mentoring”, while another concurrent session dealt with
“creating effective remediation plans” and/or “steps in
developing an internship”.
attended the ACCTA meeting in Baltimore last month as the APTC
liaison. I was stuck by the many similarities (e.g. size) and
common interests between our groups. Their conference, like
ours, balances internal vs. external needs. The job of training
director, competencies, culture sharing, diversity, supervision,
and self-care were all recurring themes. One difference is that
these Training Directors are more like DCTs in that they write
the self-study. The meeting ran from Sat
night through Tuesday which is long; their board meets the day
before. Dr. Cindy Juntunen gave an excellent keynote on the APA
HSPEC’s work on psychology as a health care profession and
related competencies. They have a well- developed session for
newer directors and breakout groups (passages) related to where
directors place themselves developmentally and emotionally. They
also have topical breakouts (affinity groups) at the conference
end. Most meals were hosted at the hotel as a group, with one
night of excursions. They have a mentoring program and keep a
history, including pictures of their conferences. ACCTA seems to have worked
out the art of conducting smaller surveys and those data were
presented at different points. For example, directors (n=76)
reported that 87% of their interns had jobs by the end of the
internship year. Also, the obstacles to adding slots within
these internships are money, space and supervisors. They are in
the process of conducting another survey related to CoA
self-study experiences. ACCTA has a diversity scholar
presentation program, with this year’s speakers addressing
transgender needs and working with Asian males. I attended
several smaller concurrent sessions on supervision and
remediation plans. My liaison report from APTC
seemed to be well received. I bonded with Cathy Grus the first
day who gave the APA perspective. In addition, Joyce
Illfelder-Kaye led a CoA session regarding the process and first
round of questions regarding changes within the G&P. This is
a bit overwhelming at various levels, and she will be coming to
our conference in the Spring for a similar meeting. I suspect it
would be good to do some preplanning around this session and the
revised questions. The conference ended with a dinner, awards
and song.
Board of Educational Affairs Jennifer
L. Schwartz I attended the Board of
Educational Affairs (BEA) meeting November 1st and 2nd as a
liaison from APTC and noted the following items that might be of
interest to our group.
1. Guidelines for Competency-Based Clinical Supervision in
Health Service Psychology Education and Training Programs.
This document could have direct implications for the kind of
work done in our clinics. It is out for comment until November
18th. See the link to view the document.
http://apaoutside.apa.org/EducCSS/Public/ProjectList.asp?t=111128
2. Maintenance of Competence and Licensure White Paper (MOCAL):
The MOCAL committee was charged to revise and update the
guidelines for continuing education, study the role of
regulatory bodies in assuring that psychologists maintain
competence, and make recommendations to those bodies on how to
implement maintenance of competence in licensing procedures. A
draft report was discussed. Here is the link.
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.asppb.net/resource/resmgr/guidelines/draft_mocal_paper_august_12_.pdf
3. Proposal for APA sponsoring a
National Psychology Week
(This proposal met with mixed enthusiasm because of resources
and time it might take from other public education activities
and is still being considered.)
4. Proposed Changes to Section 8 of the Accreditation Operating
Procedures
On the CoA website , there is expanded disclosure regarding
accreditation decisions. Changes were also made to reflect
new standards for all programs training Health Services
Psychologists (Standards of Accreditation and
Accreditation Operating Procedures). Next steps in revising the
G& P.
CCTC Fall
2013 (Council
of Chairs of Training Councils) Colleen Byrne
Education Directorate
APA Intern grants have been offered for two cycles with a
third smaller cycle to distribute remaining funds.
The Primary Care Competencies document was approved by
multiple groups and is under final review.
There is no agreement regarding a statement on master’s
education at this time.
Heath Service Psychologists document is open for Yes or No
regarding recommendations to approve it. Internship Toolkit
As an action item from the 2008 Imbalance meeting, CCTC
created a workgroup to develop an Internship Toolkit
(available at
http://www.psychtrainingcouncils.org/documents.html). Canadian Reference Letter Workgroup
A workgroup will be convened to look at the possibility of
advocating for a standardized reference similar to the
Canadian form. The workgroup reports that a standardized
letter promotes better communication and would be helpful to
internships but does not fully address competencies. BEA Virtual Working Group: “Conscience
Clause” Legislation
This work group is developing recommendations regarding the
“Conscience Clause” legislation, addressing both students’
First Amendment rights and training students to become
competent psychologists able to serve a diverse population. Update
on Courageous Conversation II and the Imbalance Grid
In 2008, APA and APPIC partnered to convene a
meeting of the five doctoral Councils and APAGS, to identify
action steps that would mitigate the internship imbalance (AKA
“The Imbalance Meeting”). In 2012, CCTC agreed to hold a
follow-up meeting, which was dubbed “Courageous Conversation
II” (CC2). CCTC’s guiding vision has been to identify
mechanisms that would mitigate the imbalance in a manner that
promotes quality in education and is responsive to workforce
needs.
APAGS requested CC2 Training Councils to go back to their
constituencies to discuss policies of funding and expenses for
unplaced students. APAGS prefers use of the term
“crisis” rather than “imbalance.” Health
Service Psychology Education Collaborative
(HSPEC)
A national conference on the sequence of training was
identified as one potential long-term action related to the
Imbalance. An inter-organizational workgroup was
established to consider elements of importance in the
education of HSPs, including initial plans for a national
conference. Questions remain regarding how to use
competencies and ratings of competencies. Psychology
Teachers at Community Colleges
Discussion was held on how best to foster the development of
psychological services and training opportunities in community
colleges where no psychological services are in place. A CCTC
workgroup was convened.
