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MEMBERSHIP IN APAPO: WHY TO DO IT, HOW TO DO IT

Basics about APAPO

The American Psychological Association Practice Organization (APA Practice Organization, or APAPO) is a companion organization to the American Psychological Association (APA). A legally distinct entity created as a 501(c)6 organization, APAPO is able to advocate free of restrictions and prohibitions that apply to activities of a 501(c)3 organization like APA.

The APA Practice Organization is dedicated to advancing and protecting the professional interests of practicing psychologists. APAPO is fighting for practitioners on Capitol Hill, in the courts and the marketplace.

Members of APAPO pay the Practice Assessment, which funds the organization's numerous advocacy activities. Key efforts include:

• challenging payment cuts for psychological services by Medicare and private sector health insurers;
• supporting litigation against abusive managed care practices;
• advocating for professional psychology as the federal health care reform law - the Affordable Care Act -- is implemented;
• gaining support for pending federal legislation to include psychologists in the Medicare definition of physician;
• affirming the doctoral standard for independent psychology practice;
• confronting assaults on psychologists' scope of practice.

You can learn more about these and other activities at Practice Central, the APA Practice Organization website. Details are available at http://www.apapracticecentral.org/about/assessment-work.aspx.

Who Belongs to APAPO

Members of APAPO comprise licensed APA members who provide health or mental health services or who supervise practitioners who provide these services. The Practice Assessment paid to the APA Practice Organization is included in a separate section in APA member dues statements. As noted on the dues statement, the Practice Assessment for 2012 is $140.

Why Membership in APAPO is Crucial

Psychology needs a strong collective voice in order to truly make a difference for the profession. The larger its membership, the more APAPO can do on behalf of professional psychology. APAPO relies on the support of practitioners in all practice settings and at all stages of their career.The need for practitioners to stand united is greater than ever.

Every Practice Assessment dollar is an investment in the future of psychology. The Practice Assessment amounts to less than 40 cents a day, but it translates into a powerful voice for the profession all year long.

The Partnership Between APAPO and State Psychological Associations

APAPO and its Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) collaborate closely with state psychological associations like ours. APAPO provides financial and consultative support for numerous advocacy activities at the state level. CAPP grants -- funded by Practice Assessment payments and totaling $5.8 million dollars since 2001 -- have supporteda variety of state legislative initiatives, organizational development and additional activities.

The state psychological associations are vital for achieving APAPO's legislative and other advocacy priorities.

How to Pay the Practice Assessment

If you are an APA member who is licensed by the state board of psychology and haven't yet paid your Practice Assessment for 2012, you can do so online at my.apa.

Log in using your APA user ID and password, and click on "Renew Your Membership for 2012." You also can call APA Membership Services at 1-800-374-2721.

Natalie W. Gaughf, Ph.D.

MPA President Elect

Mississippi Psychological Association's Executive Council Planning Retreat 2012

The Mississippi Psychological Association's Executive Council held its annual planning retreat at the University of Mississippi Medical Center on November 4, 2011. The planning retreat was a great success, and we had remarkable attendance by MPA Executive Council members and committee chairs. We discussed the state of MPA, reviewed the budget, and developed goals for 2012.

The consensus was that we should focus on three areas in particular in 2012: increasing student membership and maintaining full membership; increasing MPA's legislative presence; and improving MPA's website in order to support broader goals and initiatives. The meeting was a wonderful opportunity to look back at our accomplishments and prepare for the future of MPA.

I would like to thank all of the meeting attendees for sacrificing time away from work to attend and for all of the creative ideas.

Suzanne Jourdan, Ph.D.

Public Education Coordinator

PEC PROMOTES RESILIENCE IN A TIME OF WAR

In sync with honoring our military during the week of Memorial Day, MPA Public Education Committee manned a booth at the Air National Guard 172d Airlift Wing in Jackson during their Health Fair and Family Day. Over 300 service and family members came by the booth on Saturday, November 5th. Dr. Lisa Yazdani, Dr. Amy Hudson, and Dr. Suzanne Jourdan distributed APA Mind-Body and Resiliency Campaign literature and cool refrigerator magnets. The magnets contained words that could be punched out to make positive statements like "Take time to...laugh." These materials can be ordered (free of charge) at www.apahelpcenter.org. If you know of upcoming events ripe for PEC participation, please contact Dr. Suzanne Jourdan at suzjourdan@gmail.com.

Also, if you have provided Public Education in your community or beyond, please complete the PEC form and send to Dr. Jourdan. PEC Form

ETHICS CHECKUP

Judy Oehler, Ph.D.

Being part of a profession includes not only mastering the knowledge particular to a field, but also understanding and internalizing the standards of conduct associated with the application of that knowledge. As professionals we strive every day to act in accordance with those standards, which include ethical principles and guidelines.

These guidelines, while useful, do not always tell us how to act and sometimes may seem to be in conflict with each other.   We want to respect the autonomy of our clients and maintain confidentiality so that they will remain in treatment, while protecting vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly and performing our duties as mandated reporters when necessary.

We all want to believe that we would do the right thing.   However, we are also human beings who operate from our own views of the world, based on our own histories and current environments. We develop habits or heuristics based on the culture in which we were trained and work, and if we had to stop every second to employ a full ethical decision making model, we might not get much work done.

However, there are times when we should "stop and think", as we all wish many in the latest headline child sex abuse scandal would have done. When we hear these people say they followed the rules, did what they should have done, etc., we are witnessing heuristics gone very wrong.

In hindsight we all are reacting with a high degree of moral intensity. Moral intensity, or ethical sensitivity, is the component that keeps us on alert to ethical problems and prevents us from overlooking even serious problems. Herndon (1996) discusses six aspects of moral intensity : concentration of effect, probability of effect, proximity, temporal immediacy, social consensus, and magnitude of consequence. The last two have been found to be critical to decisions and actions taken in situations calling for ethical decision making (Carlson, Kacmar, & Wadsworth, 2009. In recent nationally-publicized sex abuse scandals such as Penn State, it appears that social consensus overrode the magnitude of the consequence for the victims.

Our ethical tool belt should first include ethics sensitivity. Importantly, we should also have our go-to list of trusted colleagues and contacts upon whom we can call when a tough call must be made. By consulting with other professionals and with DHS, we are much less likely to make a decision with disastrous consequences.

Another critical piece of information we need is the likelihood of an event and the need to take action. When events hit the media, they tend to be reported with much drama. For example, we have been hearing statistics stating that one in six boys are abused before they are eighteen. In this instance, we are hearing a prevalence statistic, or the number of persons affected over a course of time. In clinical practice, we deal on a day-to-day basis with incidence, or the number of persons affected at a certain point in time. According to the Center for Disease Control, the average incidence of sexual abuse is one in a thousand, or .01%. Thus, the number affected at one point in time is much lower than the prevalence rates. However, we must consider that when dealing with clinical samples, or high risk persons, the numbers of persons being abused at any one time who are likely to present clinically would be higher, and we are important gate keepers. We cannot rely simply on preventative programs at school, as their efficacy has not been well established (Daro, 1991).

Another component to the decision-making process is knowledge of the actual law and rules in place that should guide our actions. In the state in question, the laws were interpreted in such a way as to justify what, again in hindsight, seems to be an illogical course of action. In Mississippi, psychologists, as well as other professionals, are mandated reporters for suspected and known child abuse. That is, we must report directly to the state, and case law does not exempt us from this reporting.

At the same time, we are ethically and legally bound to maintain confidentiality and hope that clients continue in therapy. What if we have a client who reports having abused a child? At what point are we protecting the therapeutic milieu, and at what point are we using the social consensus of our therapy training to collude with perpetrators of child abuse, overriding the magnitude of the consequence of silence?

What is not clear is what steps to take when we do not have the precise information regarding alleged incidents. Do we simply call on suspicion, or do we conduct a full interview ourselves? A critical skill is our ability to participate in interviewing alleged victims of abuse using established interview protocols (see Cheung & Boutte'-Queen, 2010) which can be adapted for use with perpetrators. Balancing sensitivity, or the detection of abuse, with specificity (knowing that abuse actually occurred) is always a critical factor as well, with false negatives and false positives having dire consequences for all involved. (Gellert, G. A., 2008).

Making the "call" to call is not as simple as it may seem and risk-benefit analyses may assist us in our decision-making. However, doing nothing when there is a suspicion is not one of our options. As case loads at DHS mount, and the law suit moves forward (Olivia Y. v. Barbour) we will see how the state of Mississippi addresses the issues of children who need protection after they are born. Having an established relationship with DHS personnel will help you assist children to the best of your ability.

In summary, application of ethical decision making to the suspicion, interviewing, and reporting of child abuse is a challenge we must face frequently in our practice. Remaining ethically sensitive; having a supportive social milieu; knowing the laws and regulations, as well as personnel at DHS; having good interview skills in this area; and knowing how to follow up with reporting and treatment will better prepare us to face making such decisions when necessary.

References:

Cheung, M. & Boutte'-Queen, N. M. (2010). Assessing the relative importance of the Child Sexual Abuse Interview Protocol items to assist child victims in abuse disclosure. Journal Family Violence, 25,11-22.

Carlson, D. S., Kacmar, K. M., & Wadsworth, L. L. (2009). The Impact of Moral       Intensity Dimensions on Ethical Decision-making: Assessing the Relevance of Orientation. Journal of Managerial Issues, 21, 534-551.

Daro, D. (1991). Child Sexual Abuse Prevention: Separating Fact from Fiction. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15, 1-4.

FACT FROM FICTION

Gelert, G. A., (2008). Sensitivity and specificity in child abuse detection. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wcsa20

http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/CM-DataSheet-a.pdf

Herndon, N. C. (1996). "A New Context for Ethics Education Objectives in a

College of Business: Ethical Decision-making Models." Journal of Business

Ethics 15: 501-510.

The Mississippi Code is as follows:

Child Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 15, pp1997 Amendment:

SECTION 10. Section 43-21-353, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-21-353. (1) Any attorney, physician, dentist, intern, resident, nurse, psychologist, social worker, child care giver, minister, law enforcement officer, public or private school employee or any other person having reasonable cause to suspect that a child is a neglected child or an abused child, shall cause an oral report to be made immediately by telephone or otherwise and followed as soon thereafter as possible by a report in writing to the Department of Human Services, and immediately a referral shall be made by the Department of Human Services to the youth court intake unit, which unit shall promptly comply with Section 43-21-357. Where appropriate, the Department of Human Services shall additionally make a referral to the youth court prosecutor. Upon receiving a report that a child has been abused and that the abusive act would be a felony under state law, the Department of Human Services shall promptly notify the law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the abuse occurred and shall notify the district attorney's office within seventy-two (72) hours. The law enforcement agency shall investigate the reported abuse immediately and shall file a preliminary report with the district attorney's office within twenty-four (24) hours and shall file a final report with the district attorney's office within seventy-two (72) hours.

(2) Any report to the Department of Human Services shall contain the names and addresses of the child and his parents or other persons responsible for his care, if known, the child's age, the nature and extent of the child's injuries, including any evidence of previous injuries and any other information that might be helpful in establishing the cause of the injury and the identity of the perpetrator.

(3) The Department of Human Services shall maintain a statewide incoming wide-area telephone service or similar service for the purpose of receiving reports of suspected cases of child abuse; provided that any attorney, physician, dentist, intern, resident, nurse, psychologist, social worker, child care giver, minister, law enforcement officer or public or private school employee who is required to report under subsection (1) of this section shall report in the manner required in subsection (1).

(4) Reports of abuse and neglect made under this chapter and the identity of the reporter are confidential except when the court in which the investigation report is filed, in its discretion, determines the testimony of the person reporting to be material to a judicial proceeding.

(5) Reports made under subsection (1) of this section by the Department of Human Services to the law enforcement agency and to the district attorney's office shall include the following, if known to the department:

(a) The name and address of the child;

(b) The names and addresses of the parents;

(c) The name and address of the suspected perpetrator;

(d) The names and addresses of all witnesses, including the reporting party if a material witness to the abuse;

(e) A brief statement of the facts indicating that the child has been abused and any other information from the agency files or known to the social worker making the investigation, including medical records or other records, which may assist law enforcement or the district attorney in investigating and/or prosecuting the case; and

(f) What, if any, action is being taken by the Department of Human Services.

(6) In any investigation of a report made under this chapter of the abuse or neglect of a child as defined in Section 43-21-105(m), the Department of Human Services may request the appropriate law enforcement officer with jurisdiction to accompany the department in its investigation, and in such cases the law enforcement officer shall comply with such request.

(7) Anyone who willfully violates any provision of this section shall be, upon being found guilty, punished by a fine not to exceed Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by imprisonment in jail not to exceed one (1) year, or both.

(8) If a report is made directly to the Department of Human Services that a child has been abused or neglected in an out-of-home setting, a referral shall be made immediately to the law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the abuse occurred and the department shall notify the district attorney's office within seventy-two (72) hours. The law enforcement agency shall investigate the reported abuse immediately and shall file a preliminary report with the district attorney's office within twenty-four (24) hours and shall file a final report with the district attorney's office within seventy-two (72) hours. If the out-of-home setting is a licensed facility, an additional referral shall be made by the Department of Human Services to the licensing agency.

SOURCE: 1997 Laws, Chapter 440, Sec. 10, SB2510, Effective July 1, 1997.

Earn CE, reduce your Trust liability rates, learn about a timely topic!

ADVENTURES ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: ETHICS AND RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE DIGITAL ERA

With the prevalence of the "new Internet," computer-based technologies,

The Trust, an excellent provider of risk management education, has recognized that psychologists are not fully prepared to deal with these developments. This cutting-edge workshop will help to fill those gaps.

More specifically, participants in this workshop will be able to:

• apply basic ethical principles to evaluate risks, benefits, and appropriateness of using various electronic communication and social networking media in their professional practices in a variety of situations;
• identify ethical, legal, and disciplinary trends concerning electronic communication that will allow them to anticipate, plan, and adjust their practices accordingly;
• evaluate when and how to provide remote professional services, therapeutic, and otherwise, to clients in a way that minimizes disciplinary risk;
• understand, apply, and integrate the laws and legal principles governing remote practice within and between states;
• identify various kinds of professional credentials that will enable them to increase their professional mobility;
• develop amendments to their informed consent and documentation and professional consultation policies to accommodate remote practice and electronic communication;
• identify important issues regarding privacy and confidentiality created by electronic communication media and technologies that present risks to clients so that they can clearly discuss these risks with clients who wish to utilize these technologies;
• evaluate and improve their competency to utilize electronic technology and provide remote services to their clients;
• discuss and apply specific, positive, ethically-based strategies to manage the disciplinary risks presented by remote electronic communication and professional service delivery based on documentation, consultation, informed consent, and demonstration of competency.

This workshop, presented by Eric A. Harris, Ed.D., J.D. (licensed psychologist and attorney), is approved for 6 continuing education credits for psychologists. Psychologists insured through The Trust Sponsored Liability Program will receive a 15% discount on their liability insurance for two consecutive renewals. 

Fees: $130 for MPA members; $150 for non-MPA members. Make checks payable to "MPA," and mail registration form below and check to MPA, P.O. Box 16826, Jackson, MS 39236. (Registrations after 1/20/2012, add $15)

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