Executive Officer's Message

David R. Cox, PhD, ABPP

It is amazing that it is already 2018! 2017 was a very busy year, with many important activities and decision points. I am looking forward to another full and productive year for ABPP and our affiliated Specialty Boards!

The following are highlights of ABPP’s 2017 activities, as of early December 2017. Click on any link below in the box to direct you to the highlight.

Highlights

Applications
ABPP applications are continuing to come in at a decent rate, albeit down from our record year a couple of years ago. The current pace puts us on a trajectory to have roughly 700 applicants in 2017, whereas our record exceeded 1,000 applications. More than 50% (54%) of the applications are now through the ABPP Early Entry Option (EEO). This past year has included several summits in professional psychology. The recommendations of each have a potential impact on our applications in that specialty, and board certification as a specialist, were recognized as valued in the professional lifelong development of a psychologist. Although we may not be on a record pace this year, it is apparent that the profession is moving in the direction of increased importance of specialty and board certification.

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ABPP Workshop & Conferences
The 2017 conference, held last May at the Omni San Diego, had ABPP’s usual offering of 4 days of workshops, with 4-5 workshops (half day or full day) each day, and was again met with terrific reviews by those in attendance. Presenters and attendees enjoy the level of education and interaction. Once again, the APA Commission on Accreditation joined our week, providing three site-visitor training workshops. In the spirit of ongoing inter-organizational collaboration, one workshop included the executive officer of from ABPP, the Trust (insurance), American Psychological Association Practice Organization, and ASPPB in which information was provided about how each organization saw the direction of professional psychology impacting the practice of psychology as well as individual practitioners. It was a pleasure to work alongside my colleagues and friends in that presentation.

As you have likely already read in ABPP President Michael Tansy’s Message from the President, ABPP has decided to take a break from the workshops in 2018 while we review and consider how best to utilize the human and financial resources that are involved in the undertaking of the conference. There were many factors involved in originally conceiving the conference workshop series, just as many were considered in placing it on hold. Some of these include marketing, member benefit, opportunity for cross-board interaction, and, of course, financial and human resources. I am confident that ABPP will thoughtfully consider the future course for this based on the number of factors involved.

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Summits, Summits, and more Summits
ABPP was a participant in three major summits recently. The Interorganizational Summit on Specialty, Specialization & Board Certification convened again in June for “Summit 3.0”, at which the organizations participating agreed on verbiage for the term specialty. It would seem that such a relatively simple term would already be well articulated, yet not so; at least, not consistently across the major organizations in the field. That definition was provided to you in the ABPP Agenda book and will be reviewed, discussed and we will vote on adoption at this BOT meeting. I encourage you to review it as well as to consider voting to adopt this definition that is the product of much work from the numerous organizations involved in the Specialty Summit.

Last year, APPIC sponsored a Summit on Postdoctoral Training. As with the Specialty Summit, many of the major organizations involved were in attendance. As I have previously reported, it was nice to hear an increased consensus about the importance of specialization in the field. An outcome of that summit was an agreement to this year work on a special edition of Training and Education in Professional Psychology (TEPP), in which articles about the specifics from the summit are detailed. I coauthored an article, Postdoctoral Training in Health Service Psychology: Current Perspectives and Considerations for Educators and Trainees in an Evolving Profession, for that special edition. I do not know the exact date for publication, although the articles have been accepted and are in press.

In August of this year, the APA Office of Continuing Education and ASPPB co-sponsored a Summit on Promoting Best Practices in Continuing Education and Continuing Professional Development. I was asked to participate, as were representatives of many organizations. The agreed upon objectives are as follows:

“1. Create a culture change – e.g., inculcation of engagement with CE/CPD and openness to CE/CPD as a lifelong learning process (including the expectation that ongoing professional development is normative, embraced by psychologists, intrinsically motivating, fosters engagement in a community of professional peers, and includes self-reflection and self-assessment); 2. Allow for flexibility with commitment to accountability and providing ongoing evidence of relevant outcomes – e.g., be inclusive with interprofessional practice and also provide flexibility in type and methods of offerings; 3.Capture and evaluate outcomes re: efficacy of CE/CPD – e.g., include self-assessment in combination with third-party evaluation, and ensure multimodal, triangulated data.”

Several steps are being formalized for future action in this regard. Once again, one outcome is publishing details of the discussions and thoughts that those involved came up with. A special edition of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (PPRP) is in the works, and will include my article entitled From Continuing Education to Continuing Competence, in which the importance of lifelong learning, continuing professional development and maintenance of competence/certification will be discussed. The special edition editor is Dr. Greg Neimeyer of the APA Office of CE. Resulting from that summit, ASPPB and APA have embarked on a project to develop a “push” CE/CPD product that would provide CE/CPD to psychologists in an ongoing, intermittent fashion. I would not be surprised if ABPP specialists were asked to participate by providing material or input.

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Liaison Activities
ABPP continues to participate as liaison to many organizations, boards and committees in the psychology profession. Most of these are ongoing, and longstanding, relationships that include ASPPB, the APA Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP), the APAPO, various boards and committees that meet as part of the APA Consolidated Meetings (e.g., Board of Educational Affairs, Board of Professional Affairs), CCTC, CUDCP, APPIC, NCSPP, and others. It is pleasant to experience the increased cohesion across organizations that seems to be occurring in recent years, as well as to find that across most of these meetings there is an increased attention to specialty as an important aspect of the sequence of education and training in our profession.

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ABPP/ASPPB Collaborative Project
We have begun an exciting collaborative project with the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) that relates directly to the ABPP Early Entry Option. This project has EEO applicants apply through the ABPP web portal, after which they are directed to the ASPPB PsyPro web page. PsyPro is the portal through which applicants (and others) can provide documentation of education, training, and experience for storing in the ASPPB Credentials Bank. The ABPP/ASPPB Collaborative Project has ASPPB compiling and primary source verifying the credentials of our EEO applicants, after which ASPPB provides ABPP the “file” for our review. This program provides benefit to all – ABPP receives the verified credentials from ASPPB on completion (as opposed to compiling and verifying the ourselves; a time-saver), ASPPB can facilitate applications for licensing and obtain workforce data, and the applicant has credentials stored in a secure credentials bank. This is a program that was several years in the making and we are glad to see it come to fruition.

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ABPP Convocation at APA Convention 
The 70th Annual ABPP Convocation was held in Washington, D.C. during the APA Convention, with our newly board certified specialists recognized as were others who had made significant contributions to their specialty board or academy. Dr. Jeffrey Barnett was recognized as recipient of the Distinguished Service to the Profession Award and provided a talk entitled “New directions in ethical practice: It really does take a village.” Dr. Arthur Nezu, recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Service to the Profession Award, was unable to be in attendance and will hopefully address us next year.

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Technology Updates
ABPP has been working with CodeASite (CAS), a local technology vendor, to update our website, database and program the “behind the scenes” automation that will, when complete, facilitate processing of applications practice samples and other ABPP matters. As I have written previously, this same firm worked with us on the MOC technology that we have been using. The process of working with them, using various software platforms to meet our needs (including technologies called SharePoint, AgilePoint and Kentico) includes “workflows” that automate “movement” of files and actions based on decisions in the process. This is a detailed, challenging, and at times frustrating process. However, there is a commitment to seeing our way through this project, recognizing that the result will be a significantly enhanced method of processing materials that are included in the ABPP board certification process. At this point, the ABPP and CAS staff are working on finalizing content on the new web pages, as well as the final steps of getting the new system ready to accept applications and attestations. A decision was made to briefly put on hold the project aimed at uploading practice samples in order to get the “early phase” of ABPP processes done. Presently, CAS is working on that portion of the project and should resume work on the practice sample portion relatively soon. Our processes include several “chunks” of work activities including, but not limited to, applications, attestations, credential uploads and reviews, practice sample uploads and reviews, MOC uploads and reviews, registrations for exams (written and oral) and many other issues that each require a focus as well as the “behind the scenes” workflow programming. ABPP does need to continue to improve our technology experience for all users of our services, and that this is probably one of our most significant “products” right along with quality examinations. We have a proposed budget that includes dollars for continuing this project and we will need to plan for continued, ongoing improvements, additions and changes on an annual basis. I will update the BOT verbally with any new information at the meeting; I continue to believe that the outcome of this project will be a greatly enhanced process for applicants, reviews and others involved.

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Liability and Risk Management
This year we had some discussions about the issue of volunteer liability and risk management when volunteers (and employees) are engaged in ABPP-related activities. I have authored a brief article addressing these issues. It is located under the News & Events, Headline News  Click HERE to be directed to that page, as well as included in the December 2017 BOT agenda book and upcoming edition of the Specialist. Please take the time to read that article and consider your situation in light of the information provided therein.

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Central Office
As always, I am proud of the incredible amount of quality work that our Central Office team provides for ABPP. Nancy McDonald, Lanette Melville, Diane Butcher, and Kathy Holland are dedicated, loyal and, very importantly, a pleasure to work with. This is a team that has worked together (most of us) for 9 years through a variety ups and downs. It is a rare workplace in which a team works so cooperatively and I appreciate each one of our CO staff. Please find the time to express your gratitude to them!
 
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