Council
of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) Report
from Tony
Cellucci
The CCTC consists of 13 different training councils
in health services psychology and a large number of
liaisons. For more information about CCTC see http://www.cctcpsychology.org
Dr. Jim Diaz-Granados is replacing Dr.
Belar as head of the Executive Director of
Educational Affairs.
He spoke about CCTC being a microcosm of discipline,
working for overall good.
APA’s Board of Education Affairs (BEA)
has disseminated the new supervision guidelines, APA
Grants program for internships, steps to implement
HSPEC blueprint and the Graduate Education Online
Academy and other resources. In regard to
internship grants, approximately 93 proposed
internship programs have been funded and 24 have
already applied for accreditation.
BEA also has a workgroup on internship
development. The idea of an internship
conference was rejected in favor of investigating
greater technical assistance.
Dr. Carl Paternite, the current chair
of CoA, updated us on the revised SOA. The SOA
(including nine competencies) were approved and are
undergoing final legal review as they make their way
through APA governance process. CoA has been
quite busy as they are approaching 1000 accredited
programs including doctoral programs, internships,
and post-docs. Accredited internships have
shown the most growth including use of the new
“contingent status”. There is now also a neat
utility on the Office of Program Consultation and
Accreditation (OPCA) home page (http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation)
that allows one to compare programs based on C20
data. The CoA is hoping to also develop more
training resources in the future to provide
assistance to developing programs.
ELC
Liaison Summary (ELC) from Leticia Flores
The APA Education Directorate and the Board of Educational Affairs
(BEA) holds an annual Education Leadership Conference (ELC) in
Washington, DC., to provide a forum for organizations across all
levels of education/training to address issues of mutual concern
and influence public policy regarding psychology education.
This year's ELC theme was "Learning in a Digital
World," with presentations and discussion groups addressing
aspects of technology at every level, from K-12 education to
continuing professional education. Other presentations
focused on issues such as the enduring need for a thoughtful and
measured approach to using technology at appropriate times for
appropriate purposes, a valid and reliable method for evaluating
the effectiveness of technology's use in psychology education and
training, and an acknowledgment and appreciation that face-to-face
interaction remains a highly effective and generally preferred
method for education and training.
The ELC has a second directive to groom psychologists
to advocate with US government representatives for
continued/enhanced funding for important APA education
initiatives, such as the Graduate Psychology Education (GPE)
funding. Armed with information and filled with caffeine, ELC
participants were "unleashed on Capitol Hill", and to hold brief
discussions with congressional staffers.
APPIC Liaison Report from Karen
Fondacaro
COA (Committee on Accreditation) Standards on
Accreditation (SoA): COA is currently working on changing their
standards of accreditation. Changes are scheduled to impact
programs spring of 2015.
APPIC: APPIC is working on a standardized Post
Doc application.
Internship Crisis: Greg Keilen, Ph.D. gave an update
on the internship crisis and displayed a graph from 1999 -2014
depicting the change in applicant numbers and available positions.
Of note, in 2014 the number of applicants declined while the
number of positions increased, closing the gap “a little,” however
the explanation for this is largely unknown. Interestingly, in
2002 90% of applicants were matched, while 71% of applicants
matched in 2012. By 2014, 80% matched but only 60% matched to
accredited programs. This 60% match declines further when
considering some of the individuals who matched to accredited
internships came from non-accredited doctoral programs (numbers
not available at the time).
TEPP (Training & Education in Professional
Psychology): TEPP has a 26% acceptance rate of submitted articles
this past year. They are hoping for future articles focused on
Internship Programs.
My Psych Track: There was general consensus that
counting hours is not the best way to document success of
pre-doctoral clinicians. A move towards competency-based
assessments continues.
Internship Letters of Recommendation: There is a
concern by APPIC board that recommendations for tend to be
glowing, and that individuals providing these recs are fearful of
being honest given the internship shortage. There is a Canadian
standardized letter of recommendation that includes challenges
faced by the applicant. APPIC is attempting to adopt this for use
by those writing recommendations.