December 2019
 
Specialty Summit 4.0 – ABPP and ASPPB co-facilitated, with the Council of Specialties in Professional Psychology (COS), the 4^th Summit on Specialty, Specialization, and Board Certification. The Summit was held in June and included participation by most of the major organizations in psychology. A major focus was on the use of, and means to spread utilization of, the Taxonomy adopted by APA (https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/understanding-taxonomy). That Taxonomy grew out of many years of work, beginning with the Taxonomy Workgroup in 2007, to get organizations to use a common language and meaning for terms we use describing specialty, specialization, and education and training guidelines. Summit 4.0 resulted in several workgroups being formed with action plans about how to spread the word and increase the use of the Taxonomy. Ultimately, use of the Taxonomy will facilitate “truth in advertising” for educational training programs, internships, postdocs as well as consumers and regulatory boards. Why be concerned about the Taxonomy? The Taxonomy is an important document and APA policy that sets the stage for further transformation of psychology education and training and the pathway to specialization. A future need for translating the Taxonomy, which is designed for describing programs, into a method for describing education, training and experience of individual psychologists was identified as a probable focus of Summit 5.0, the date for which is not yet set.
 
Early Entry Option and Early Career Psychologist Applications – A significant percentage of applications to ABPP are Early Entry Option (pre-licensure) and Early Career Psychologists. Combined, these approach 60% of the applications in any given year. Information on the process as well as the reduced application costs for these applicants may be found at the Early Entry Option application page https://abpp.org/Applicant-Information/5-Types-of-applications/Early-Entry.aspx and the Early Career Psychologist application page https://abpp.org/Applicant-Information/5-Types-of-applications/Early-Career-Psychologist.aspx
 
Training Director Waivers and Scholarships – Training directors at APA/CPA and APPIC sites may have the application fee waived when applying for board certification https://abpp.org/Applicant-Information/5-Types-of-applications/Educators-Trainers.aspx.  Also, the ABPP Foundation (ABPPF) has scholarships available that will reimburse some of the expenses incurred in the board certification process to those who successfully become board certified. The details may be found at https://abpp.org/Foundation2/ABPP-Foundation-Funds/Training-Director-Awards-(1).aspx
 
ABPP Liaison Activities – ABPP has maintained important relationships with numerous organizations within the profession for many years longer than I have been Executive Officer (2006). These include many American Psychological Association (APA) boards and committees including the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP), Board of Professional Affairs (BPA), Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), Commission for the Recognition Board of Professional Affairs (BPA), Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology (CRSPPP), the Council of Specialties in Professional Psychology (CoS), Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and the Association of State & Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB). ABPP’s relationship with these and other organizations such as the National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology (NCSPP), The Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP), and the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) serve as an essential, and growing, infrastructure of the profession and avenue within which the mission of ABPP can be, and is, promulgated. ABPP views our liaison activities as critical components of maintaining communication across the various organizations that are so important to the profession. The ability to work together on important issues has facilitated positive movement (such as the Summits reference above) in the field in recent years and we know that collaborative efforts will be key to the profession’s continued growth and success.

Current status of Specialties – ABPP has recently received an initial proposal for consideration of establishing a new member board in Severe Mental Illness (SMI). SMI was approved as a newly recognized specialty by the Commission on Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology (CRSPPP) and APA Council of Representatives in August. It is our anticipation that the group interested in establishing this new board will make a presentation to the ABPP Board of Trustees in December of this year.  
 
Current status of Subspecialties - ABPP has been informed that we may anticipate proposals for a number of potential subspecialties: Addiction Psychology; Integrated Care Psychology; Applied Behavioral Analysis; Forensic Neuropsychology.
 
CRSPPP Recognition and the Accredited Internship Issue - This item is an important one to ABPP and the field and has been brought to the attention of CRSPPP as a potentially problematic requirement exists. Specifically, the CRSPPP requirements include that as of 2020 organizations only certify individuals that have completed an APA-accredited internship. Although ABPP wholeheartedly agrees with this as an aspirational goal and has gone so far as to adapt this same requirement, it has been the case that internships have not become APA-accredited as rapidly as many of us would have hoped. Therefore, there are roughly 135 internship sites that are APPIC members but are not APA-accredited. After brining this to the attention of CRSPPP, CRSPPP modified this requirement so as to permit credentialing organizations to provide a description of how the organization intends to move toward implementing this requirement. Given that ABPP already has adopted this, it is now an issue for ABPP to consider how to process the many applications that are already in the pipeline for individuals that will not matriculate through an APA or CPA accredited internship. This will be an issue for the Standards Committee to consider when it takes up wits work in early 2020. One option that would not preclude a very large number of interns from being eligible for board certification in the field would be do adopt a stance addressing those who have applied to ABPP on or before a specified date to be excluded, and to require all applicants after a specified date to complete an accredited internship.

Relevant to the above, is the fact that ABPP is up for CRSPPP renewal in 2020 and I will be working on the renewal application in the coming months.
 
ABPP Technology Issues – ABPP continues to work on improvements on the technology implementation that has proven to be a long and costly project. There is much going on regarding that presently, with decisions being made as this is written. Rather that write about those details, suffice it say the CO and the Executive Committee has been working hard on this area with an eye toward changes that will hopefully result in more rapid progress and fewer difficulties. This has been a very trying and frustrating time for CO staff and others, and I personally appreciate the patience that all have demonstrated.
 
As always, CO staff is a great team. We work well together and appreciate one another in myriad ways. Without a solid CO team, ABPP would be adrift. Many thanks for Nancy McDonald, Lanette Melville, Diane Butcher, and Kathy Holland for providing an infrastructure that supports our BOT, Specialty Board and thousands of ABPP Specialists.