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Message From the President The Value of Board Certification Similar to other professions (e.g., medicine, education), the practice of professional psychology has become complex. There are now many specialty areas of expertise required for the wide range of professional services we provide. The most responsible way for a psychologist to represent herself/himself as a specialist to the public, third-party payers, legislative jurisdictions, and the profession, is to be certified through an organized peer process. ABPP has been awarding such certification in psychology specialties for over 60 years. Moreover, as the national umbrella organization for its 13 specialty boards, the ABPP Board of Trustees has been diligent in the development of standards, policies, examination procedures, and ongoing self-study to insure the quality of its certification process. As a result, ABPP has distinguished itself as a high quality professional certification that inspires public and professional confidence. In addition to board certification providing peer and public recognition of demonstrated specialty competence, there are additional professional advantages to being board certified. One advantage is mobility. There are now many jurisdictions that recognize ABPP as a credential that can significantly ease the path to licensure when moving to a new location. As such, it is becoming a valuable source for practice mobility, with additional jurisdictions getting involved each year. Finally, board certification through ABPP provides the professional with increased opportunities for career growth, including employability and financial compensation. For example, there is increasing recognition of the importance of the ABPP credential by health system employers such as the Mayo Clinic, and organizations, such as the U. S. Public Health Service, the U. S. Department of Defense, and the Department of Veteran Affairs. Consistent with the broad range of specialty practice areas in professional psychology, increasing numbers of psychologists will be seeking board certification as a final important and necessary step in demonstrating their professional competence to both peers and the pubic. The ABPP board certification process takes several months to finish and involves several stages of candidacy. As such, it can be viewed as daunting to both the emerging and seasoned specialist, as it involves multiple steps to complete, including general credentialing in professional psychology, documentation of specialty training, submission of professional practice samples, and demonstration of competency in relevant assessment and treatment areas through a live, face-to-face peer examination. As such, I ask all certified specialists to nurture and encourage their colleagues to apply and to share their own experiences, indicating the value they received through the credentialing experience. In order to make this process more inviting and user-friendly, we have a number of initiatives planned in the coming year. You will be reading about these in upcoming issues of the Specialist, which is available on-line through this site. However, nothing takes the place of a personally extended welcome from a colleague. If every credentialed specialist inspired just one colleague, supervisee, or former student to make an application, we could double our membership in a few months. As such, the growth of the organization and its impact on the profession is in our collective hands. Please spend some time with our site, review the latest issue of the Specialist, browse the various specialty sites that match your specialty practice and most important, contact us for more information, answers to your questions, or suggestions regarding how we can improve our services to both applicants and current board certified specialists. I would enjoy hearing from you and your suggestions for our future. My warm wishes to you and your families in 2008.
Executive
Officer Update - Winter 2008 Florida Legislative and Rules Update
As you are aware, in mid to late 2006, ABPP was asked by the Florida Psychological Association to be involved in providing input to the Florida Board of Psychology (BOP) regarding board certification. The State of Florida passed legislation in 2006 requiring the BOP to create rules for recognition of board certifying organizations. ABPP was involved both due to the FPA request, requests from some individual psychologists in Florida and due to the clear potential impact of such rule on ABPP and ABPP specialists. The specific rule language adopted, effective Nov 1, 2007, follows in italics:
64B19-18.008 Board Approval of Specialty Certifying Bodies. To obtain Board approval as a certifying body, eligible to grant formal recognition declaring a licensed psychologist to be a “certified psychology specialist,” board-certified psychology specialist,” or a “psychology diplomate,” pursuant to Section 490.0149, F.S., an applicant shall file a petition demonstrating that it: (1) Is an independent body, national in scope, that incorporates standards of the profession, collaborates closely with organizations related to specialization in psychology, and only certifies doctoral-level, licensed psychologists as having advanced qualifications in a particular psychological specialty through demonstrations of competence in the specialty being recognized; (2) Has clearly described purposes, bylaws, policies, and procedures, that include an internal review and budgetary practices, to ensure effective utilization of resources with an administrative staff, housed in dedicated office space that is appropriate for the certifying body’s program and sufficient for responding to consumer or regulatory inquiries; (3) Has established standards for specialized practice of psychology and adopts the American Psychological Association (APA) “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct,” effective June 1, 2003, to guide the practice of its members. The code is incorporated by reference and available for inspection at the Board office as well as at: www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html; and (4) Has implemented and documented a comprehensive assessment procedure, designed to measure the competencies required to provide services characteristic of the specialty area, that describes security and grading standards, and consists of an oral examination and peer-review of practice samples and may include a written examination. Specific Authority 490.0149, 490.004(4) FS. Law Implemented 490.0149 FS. History–New 11-1-07. This rule is related to the legislative language (F.S. 490.0149) that follows: 490.0149 Specialties.— (1) As used in this section, the term "certified psychology specialist," "board-certified psychology specialist," or "psychology diplomate" means a psychologist with recognized special competency acquired through an organized sequence of formal education, training, experience, and professional standing that is recognized by a certifying body approved by the board pursuant to criteria adopted under subsection (3). (2) A person licensed as a psychologist may not hold himself or herself out as a certified psychology specialist, board-certified psychology specialist, or psychology diplomate unless the person has received formal recognition from an approved certifying body. (3) The board shall adopt rules to establish criteria for approval of certifying bodies that provide certification for specialties in psychology as provided in subsection (1). The criteria shall include that a certifying body:(a) Be national in scope, incorporate standards of the profession, and collaborate closely with organizations related to specialization in psychology. (b) Have clearly described purposes, bylaws, policies, and procedures. (c) Have established standards for specialized practice of psychology. (d) Provide assessments that include the development and implementation of an examination designed to measure the competencies required to provide services that are characteristic of the specialty area. (4) A person licensed as a psychologist under this chapter may indicate the services he or she offers and may indicate that his or her practice is limited to one or more types of services when this accurately reflects his or her scope of practice. ABPP prepared and submitted application for recognition by Florida. I was present for the Board of Psychology meeting at which the petition was considered and subsequently received the following from the Florida Department of Health, Board of Psychology: Dear Dr. Cox: Congratulations! The American Board of Professional Psychology has been approved as a specialty certifying body for licensed psychologists in the state of Florida, effective January 25, 2008. January 25, 2008 was the earliest possible date for any board to be recognized. ABPP appreciates the efforts of all involved in this process. Applications for Affiliation Update
In December 2006, the ABPP Board of Trustees voted to not accept for specialty recognition the area of Pediatric Neuropsychology as submitted by a group called the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology (ABPdN). Concomitantly, it voted to encourage the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN) to engage in discussions with ABPdN to consider pediatric neuropsychology as a subspecialty of ABCN. The initial discussions began in early May 2007, with a subsequent meeting in June. ABCN has convened a committee to review the issue of subspecialties (not necessarily just pediatric). Discussions are anticipated to continue in this matter.
ABPP had anticipated that it would have received an application for affiliation for a group of individuals interested in having psychopharmacology become a specialty board. The group has continued to indicated that ABPP can expect an application for affiliation, although it has not been received to date and is therefore not up for consideration at this Board of Trustees meeting. The group reports representation from most, if not all, of the variety of RxP training models. Recent communications indicate that the group does still intend to submit the application in the near future.
Subspecialty Language
The ABPP Executive Committee set aside a large portion of its agenda for its June 2007 meeting to consider if and how subspecialties might be established within ABPP. Initial drafting of language for sub-specialty was completed, although it was determined that no formal implementation of this would occur until after the planned APA Taxonomy Task Force had a chance to consider the ABPP language, and ABPP had a chance to consider feedback from that group, as well as other groups. The language follows in italics:
Early Entry Option
ABPP has established an Early Entry Option for graduate students enrolled in APA-accredited and ASPPB/NR designated psychology doctoral programs, as well as other pre-licensure individuals (interns, residents). Such individuals may begin their application to ABPP with a $25 application fee. No additional application fee will be necessary. The Early Entry Option will not include any special consideration other than the discount. Credentials review, examination and such will continue as usual. Early Entry Option applicants will not need to identify the board within which they seek to be examined at the application date, but may so specify a later date. ABPP is encouraging graduate programs to consider underwriting the application fee for students, providing a professional “gift that keeps giving” in an effort to encourage their students toward ABPP board certification and excellence in professional psychology. Several institutions, including professional school and university programs, have agreed to sponsor their students in this fashion.
Continuous Quality Improvement through Periodic Comprehensive Review
ABPP has been undertaking what we call Periodic Comprehensive Review (PCR) of each specialty board. The following have undergone review: Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, School Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychology.
Recognition with the Department of Veterans Affairs
We are proud to have the Department of Veterans Affairs recognize the value of ABPP. The DVA has initiated a program to encourage attaining board certification through ABPP and rewarding psychologists who obtain ABPP specialty certification with a significant salary increase.
Reciprocal Discount between ABPP and ASPPB
ABPP and ASPPB have agreed on the following: Psychologists who have a CPQ will be granted a $100 discount on the usual $125 ABPP application fee. Psychologists who have ABPP will be granted a $100 discount on the usual $200 fee for CPQ.
ABPP Strategic Planning
ABPP recently undertook a very productive Strategic Planning session at its November/December Board of Trustees meeting. Input from all ABPP-affiliated boards and academies was been sought and welcomed as part of that planning. As a result of the strategic planning session, I will be increasing my time with ABPP to full-time. Over the course of the coming year, we will begin to see the payoff of the strategic planning as a variety of committees start working on issues such as the Early Entry Option, increasing diversity within ABPP, improving communications and web presence and other areas. We continue to desire improvement in our web presence. Along those lines, I have sought input from many of you (and continue to do so) who may have contacts with web and database firms or individuals that I might look to as we seek proposals to redesign our presence.
Updates on Central Office
Nancy McDonald and Judy Cline have served us very well this past year. They are to be commended on their hard work, diligence and steadfast loyalty to ABPP. Their efforts have been appreciated by many, as is attested to through the numerous unsolicited positive comments about them that have been provided to me by ABPP specialists as well as others. Thanks go to them!
Rob Stangroom, our current web master, has taken a full time job that precludes him from continuing to assist us. We thank him for his help over the past few years.
I have enjoyed my time with ABPP. Engaging in the numerous committees and activities has had me on the road much more than originally anticipated (97 days the first full year!), but I believe that is serving ABPP quite well. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you and the others within ABPP in the coming years as we continue to improve our visibility, worth and presence in the profession of psychology. David R. Cox, Ph.D., ABPP Executive Officer
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