Liaison Report:  
Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP)
Lee Cooper, Ph.D.

2014 Annual Meeting Highlights
I:  Institutional and Program Context

A. The term “Health Service Psychology” now replaces the term “Professional Psychology” as the scope of accreditation
B. Models are now based on practice area and degree type – not “scientist-practitioner” or “practitioner scholar.”  The SoA defines PhD vs PsyD as a difference in emphasis on certain activities

A. Required Practicum and Internship Experiences
Practicum Settings - must be committed to training, with appropriately credentialed supervisors, and each practicum evaluation must be based in part on direct observation (directly relevant to APTC)
B. Documentation of Outcomes – Distal Outcomes

2 years post-graduation – provide evidence of how well program prepared students in profession-wide and program-specific competencies (plus jobs/licensure).
5 and 10 years post-graduation – provide data on licensure and research/scholarly contributions

Discipline-Specific Knowledge – (this used to be “broad and general”)
The new SoA proposal allows an option of using the revised PSYCH GRE (score to still be determined) as evidence that students have the foundational-competence entry requirements.  Programs would then be able to have advanced courses in these areas consistent with their program goals.  OR The program may choose not to adopt foundational entry requirements but then must document how foundation was trained/covered (consistent with the current G&P).  CUDCP plans to work further with ETS on the PSYCH GRE.

Preamble: CUDCP programs and their students work collaboratively to manage the challenge of students successfully obtaining an internship match.
CUDCP encourages member programs to make every effort to limit the financial burdens during the unmatched year and to develop a specific plan to assist students who go unmatched with educational, mentorship and training opportunities during the subsequent training year.

The supervision guidelines: These were put forth by BEA (Board of Educational Affairs), revised based on public comment, including ours, and may come before APA Council as early as August.  ASPPB (Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards) also has supervision guidelines for regulatory boards to consider. 

APA internship stimulus grants: We are in the last year of these grants, awarded largely to help internship programs get accredited.  72 awards (max $20,000) have been granted, and a new call is about to go out.  APPIC has invested money in a study of the barriers for their members who are not APA accredited.  APA’s goal is to have all internship programs accredited by 2020. 

The HSP (Health Service Psychology) competencies and blueprint: The blueprint establishes minimum qualifications (e.g. undergraduate study areas) for entering doctoral programs. CUDCP (Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology) leaders have been talking with ETS about revisions of the Psychology Subject matter test that might be used (along with other indicators such as a syllabus) to establish “credit” for general training (e.g., social psychology).   (See everyone the Feb 2014 issue of TEPP for an overview).

APA Presidential Initiatives:  Dr. Nadine Kaslow indicated she has devoted two hours of convention programming to structured conversations between councils and graduate students for new ideas and solutions to the internship imbalance. 

Guidelines for Master’s programs in psychology:  BEA has a new task force to better define and distinguish levels of training. 

Centralized application system:  Garth Fowler, Associate Executive Director of Graduate and Post-Graduate Education, described a project of a centralized application system for psychology students applying to all graduate programs in psychology.

Trends affecting education and training:  Cynthia Belar, Executive Director of APA’s Education Directorate, identified 3 major trends: 1) Increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary training with other health professionals which is a unique feature of HSP competencies. “Psychology has to be more like internal medicine which has both primary and specialty components”.  2) Increasing opportunities for psychology training in community health centers and especially teaching health centers established by ACA (Affordable Care Act). Psychologists need to establish practica in these settings.  3) Corporation of Higher education will continue and will raise questions of access, competencies, use of technology, and legislative intrusions. 

Internship crisis:  Much of the meeting was a discussion of the internship imbalance, with the emphasis on increasing internships. CCTC has updated the internship tool kit which is on the CCTC website. The end result of this discussion was the recommendation that CCTC establish a Working Group on Cross-Council Collaborations to address the internship issue which will discuss and propose steps CCTC might advance with BEA and others (e.g., technical assistance center, collaborative internship building forum). I recommend Bob Hatcher’s upcoming chapter in Annual Review for an excellent analysis of the internship imbalance. 

A standardized reference letter for internship:  The advantages of this concept, similar to Canadian system, were discussed, with questions about whether the current proposed form fits the competencies.  After much discussion, this was endorsed by CCTC although APPIC will not require use of the form.  

CoA: President Carl Paternite spoke to various misunderstandings including there was a CoA 50% match rule; programs with less than a 50% percent match are asked to reflect on what they can do to improve. The draft outlining standards is out for comment till July. It outlines a common core of 10 competencies yet to be defined.  Of specific interest to APTC is that the new standards provide higher requirements for keeping practicum training records as well as direct observation of trainees.

GPE (Graduate Psychology Education) grant increased to $6.9 million: The Educational Directorate’s Government Relations Office expects this will fund 21 new training grants with the call for proposals expected in April. Psychology is also included in new SMSA/HRSA workforce funding for training mental health professionals to work with youth with serious emotional problems.  We were asked to support the Education Advocacy Trust, the political action committee used to support legislators who share our interests in health.