NATIONAL UNITY FOR RxP

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER FOR MISSOURI AND BEYOND IN 2008

January 9th – 12th, 2008

In 1984, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, at the urging of his chief of staff, Pat DeLeon, PhD, MPH, JD, introduced the idea of prescriptive authority for psychologists to legislators of the Hawaii Psychological Association. In 1985, the HPA endorsed the first legislative effort at the state level. In 1994, Missouri Psychological Association had submitted a prescriptive authority bill but, subsequently pulled the bill because there was no available training program at the time. In 1996, the American Psychological Association took an official position supporting the expansion of clinical practice to include prescriptive authority for psychotropic medications for all appropriately trained psychologists. In 1998, the legislative body in the U.S. territory of Guam passed the first legislation that gave appropriately trained psychologists prescriptive authority. In 2002, New Mexico’s state legislature was the first state legislature, with gubernatorial consent, to grant prescriptive authority to psychologists and in 2004, Louisiana’s state legislature and governor granted prescriptive authority to psychologists.

In 2007, we had three outstanding state advocacy efforts by psychologists with significant political gains. Both houses of the Hawaiian state legislature passed prescriptive authority legislation. Only at the 11th hour did Hawaii’s governor veto the bill after succumbing to enormous pressures from the medical lobby. The Missouri state legislature and the Oregon state legislature built significant legislative support to come very close to passing prescriptive authority legislation for psychologists at the end of their spring legislative sessions.

Prescriptive authority for psychologists promises that high quality mental health care can be accessed by all populations: rich and poor, urban and rural, men and women of all sexual orientations, European American, Native American, African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American. Prescriptive authority for psychologists promises that psychotherapy will be well integrated with pharmacotherapy; that the 15-minute “med check” is, generally, substandard care; that patients’ needs will come before financial considerations; that a full continuum of high quality care can be provided by psychologists; that peer-reviewed research will inform practice; and that the pharmaceutical companies’ efficacy literature will have minimal influence on the psychologist-prescriber.

The passage of prescriptive authority legislation is of paramount importance to psychologists with advanced training in clinical psychopharmacology. Given our history and our significant objectives, the Missouri Psychological Association (MOPA), The School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute, Alliant International University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, The Adler School of Professional Psychology, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, the Southwestern Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy/New Mexico State University, NOVA Southeastern University, and Division 18 have all chosen to co-sponsor the Division 55 2008 mid-winter conference in Missouri.

On January 9, 2008, conference attendees will be participating in a morning press conference in the Missouri capital, Jefferson City, in which we will be announcing the introduction of the psychologist prescriptive authority bill in the Missouri State Legislature at the start of the 2008 legislative session. Throughout that afternoon, psychologists will be personally lobbying Missouri state legislators. In the evening of January 9th, psychologists will sponsor a reception for all of the state legislators of the General Assembly at The Gallery, a wonderfully renovated building that had been the Lohman Opera House of Jefferson City.

From January 10th – 12th, conference participants will have moved to the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Participants will be discussing advocacy agendas in their states and in their regions. We will be organizing regional associations for the purpose of passing state legislation, simultaneously, in a number of clustered states. Our workshops will be addressing the issues of raising money for advocacy and the workings of the government in response to political initiatives from special interest groups.

Friday evening, we are planning a dinner for our APA leaders and our legislators at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Dr. Paul Craig, APA Treasurer-elect, will be giving the keynote address. Key legislators from the southwest and northern Missouri areas will also be addressing the group and mingling with the conference participants.

The Conference Steering Committee, consisting of Board members of Division 55 and the Missouri Psychological Association, believes that we have organized an excellent national conference that can serve as a model for garnering national support and presence in every other state in our nation. We firmly believe that Missouri has a terrific opportunity to pass our RXP bill during the 2008 legislative session. Please join us in Jefferson City and Kansas City, January 2008, in person, and by financially supporting our lobbying efforts with our legislators.

We are taking conference registrations now. To register, please call or e-mail Carolyn Talboys at 417-823-3409 or ctalboys@Forest.edu. Carolyn will also be happy to answer your questions or refer you to us for additional information.

Beth N. Rom-Rymer, PhD, FICPP
Past President, Division 55 (2004)
Council Representative, Division 55
Chair, Division 55 Fourth Annual Midwinter Conference

Mario Marquez, Ph.D.
New Mexico Prescribing Psychologist
President-Elect, Division 55
Steering Committee, Division 55 Fourth Annual Midwinter Conference

Elaine S. LeVine, Ph.D.
New Mexico Prescribing Psychologist
President, Division 55
Steering Committee, Division 55 Fourth Annual Midwinter Conference

Mark Skrade, PsyD
President
Missouri Psychological Association (MOPA)
President
The School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute
Steering Committee, Division 55 Fourth Annual Midwinter Conference

Marci Manna, Ph.D.
Chair, MOPA RxP Committee
Steering Committee, Division 55 Fourth Annual Midwinter Conference