Summary of the Interorganizational Summits on Specialty, Specialization, and Board Certification in Health Services Psychology and General Applied Psychology
Chicago, IL, May 2016
Chapel Hill, NC, November 2016
Sponsored by The Council of Specialties in Professional Psychology (COS)
Co-Facilitated by The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP)
Co-Facilitated by The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB)
Funded, in part, by a Grant from The American Board of Professional Psychology Foundation (ABBP-F)
Summarized by Kevin D. Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP
Former President, Current Vice-President, Council of Specialties in Professional Psychology
June 2017
Summit 1.0
The following documents represent the outcomes of the first Summit meeting (Summit 1.0, May 2016, Chicago, IL) and framing of those outcomes to stimulate the second Summit meeting (Summit 2.0, December 2016, Chapel Hill, NC). These documents were originally drafted by COS in 2015 and distributed to invited organizations to contextualize and stimulate the discussions of the Summit 1.0. These documents were a) “Premises of the Specialty Summit: Professional Psychology Interorganizational Collaborative Summit on Specialization;” b) “Proposed Goals and Objectives of the Interorganizational Summit on Specialty;” and c) “Proposed Outcomes of the Interorganizational Summit on Specialty.” The documents and the agenda for Summit 1.0 are attached as Appendix A.
The invitees for Summit 1.0 included organizations that were considered stakeholders in specialty, specialization, and/or board certification. In addition, those planning the Summit believed that providing an historical orientation and broader healthcare contextualization was necessary. To achieve the historical orientation goal, Dr. Cynthia Belar, at the time the Acting CEO of the American Psychological Association (APA), was invited to address the topic of progression of specialty, specialization and board certification in psychology. Her PowerPoint slides are available upon request. Dr. Susan McDaniel, the then President of APA, provided a broader contextual introduction to Health Service Psychology (HSP) within both the domestic and international healthcare systems. Finally, Dr. Lois Nora, CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), delivered a luncheon address to review the developmental progression of specialties in medicine along with a review of challenges and future directions.
Summit 1.0 attendees:
Nora Lois American Board of Medical Specialties
David Cox American Board of Professional Psychology
Michael Tansy American Board of Professional Psychology
John Piacentini American Board of Professional Psychology
Cynthia Belar American Psychological Association
Susan McDaniel APA Board of Directors
Roberta Nutt APA Commission for Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology
Toni Minniti APA Education Directorate
Eddy Ameen American Psychological Association of Graduate Students
Katherine Nordal APA Practice Directorate/APA Practice Organization
Elena Eisman APA Practice Organization
Jeff Baker Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Training Centers
Steve DeMers Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards
Alex Siegel APA Practice Organization
Don Meck APA Practice Organization
Jim Diaz-Granados APA Education Directorate
Jared Skillings APA Board of Professional Affairs
Jason Williams Council of Chairs of Training Councils
Robyn Gobin Committee on Early Career Psychologists
Jacqui Wall APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
David Mather APA Commission on Accreditation
Kevin Arnold Council of Specialties
David Corey Council of Specialties
Rick Seime Council of Specialties
Victor Molinari Council of Specialties
Hideko Sera National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology
The outcome of Summit 1.0 was the delineation of three topics: a) proposed causes for the lack of coordination among organizations, b) a delineation of seven motivators for interorganizational collaboration, and c) the proposed work and goals for the next Summit. Participants agreed upon the details of these three topics, which is captured in a document detailing principle factors, and can be found in Appendix A. The principle factors were expanded upon and led to three separate documents. COS and the Summit 2.0 Planning Task Force reviewed them, yielding final drafts. Each of the three final drafts was distributed to the participants of Summit 2.0 to stimulate discussion and build consensus (see Appendix B). Appendix B does not reflect revisions to these documents resulting from the Summit 2.0.
Summit 2.0
Summit 2.0 was held in Chapel Hill, NC in December 2016. The participants and organizational invitees remained largely the same as those in Summit 1.0, although organizations such as ABMS did not participate. The ABPP Foundation provided support for the meeting costs, and a representative from that group participated in Summit 2.0. In addition, support from the Gupton Fund - ABPP Foundation covered the costs for attendance of an Early Career Psychologist. The format of the Summit was a large group discussion, co-facilitated by CoS, ABPP, and ASPPB representatives.
The scope of work document (Appendix B) included a thematic organization based on a qualitative analysis of the Summit 1.0 outcomes. These themes were a) Educational Goals,]; b) Goals regarding Parameters of Specialty, Specialization, and Board Certification; and c) Goals for Professional Issues and Board Certification. The participants, who are listed below, were charged with both i) review and modification of the three Summit 1.0 documents and ii) identification of the goals within one or more of these themes that their respective organizations would consider within that organizations role.
Summit 2.0 attendees:
David Cox American Board of Professional Psychology
John Piacentini American Board of Professional Psychology
Michael Tansy American Board of Professional Psychology
Morgan Sammons ABPP- Foundation
Toni Minniti APA Education Directorate
Jennifer Kelly APA Board of Directors
Roberta Nutt APA Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology
Eddy Ameen American Psychological Association of Graduate Students /APA Office on Early Career Psychologists
Katherine Nordal APA Practice Directorate/APA Practice Organization
Elana Eisman APA Practice Organization /APA Center for Psychology and Health
Jeff Baker Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Training Centers
Steve DeMers Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards
Jacquie Wall APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
Kevin Arnold Council of Specialties
Victor Molinari Council of Specialties
Angela Kuemmel Early Career Psychologist
The results of the discussion from Summit 2.0 included both revisions to the stimulus documents, Appendix B, and a set of proposed short and long term goals/objectives. The documents in Appendix C reflect language modifications for the sake of clarity, but do not reflect the progress made during Summit 2.0. That is, while Summit 2.0 made progress toward several of the proposals found in the Appendix B documents, that progress is not reflected in the Appendix C document language (i.e., aspirational statements were not changed to reflect decisions made in Summit 2.0). Instead, Appendix C reflects modifications resulting from editorial changes from Summit 2.0 and the efforts (following the Summit 2.0 meeting) of a revision team.
Summit 2.0 produced a set of short and long term goals, which are summarized below
Review the Goals List and determine if it a) applies to their organization and b) would their organization have interest in participating in its accomplishment--this was not a commitment to accomplish the goal, but rather dialog with other identified organizations to see if a plan can be developed that leads to buy-in from each of the interested organizations.
Review the taxonomies and determine, if and how, the respective organizations could implement the taxonomies in what they do. The organizations were to give a yes, maybe, no response. Of the yes organizations re: the taxonomies, they were to identify how the taxonomies would be implemented in their group, and what barriers exist within the respective organizations to implementing the taxonomies.
Review the lists of specialties from CoS, CRSPPP, COA, and ABPP, and obtain buy-in for a plan to align the names for specialties for which the names are the same to produce one unified name across all the organizations.
Determine for each respective organization a single language for "recognition" or, if you will, vetting, of a specialty. For example, ABPP affiliates, while CRSPPP recognizes. The goal is for each organization to commit to a single term for how it vets a specialty.
In addition to these goals/objectives, Summit 2.0 also proposed broad modifications regarding how the profession addresses specialization:
The participants suggested that HSP and General Applied Psychology be both considered as separate but equal general categories into which specialties fall, but that specialties in these two categories may derive from different education and training models.
The participants suggested that the profession consider revising the current “retread” concept (i.e., methods for someone to “re-specialize” in clinical, counseling or school psychology) to incorporate specialization rather than “re-specialization.”
The participants recommended that the profession address an education and training model that incorporates a “pre-psychology” undergraduate curriculum that prepares students for graduate school; and that a review of the education and training scope and sequence in graduate school be reconsidered in light of the content coverage in such a newly designed undergraduate preparatory degree.
Summit 3.0
The Summit 2.0 participants also recommended that a Summit 3.0 be planned. The work of the third summit was to focus on reaching interorganizational commitment to resolve differences in a) how specialty is defined; b) implementation/use of the Specialty Taxonomy; and c) resolution of inconsistencies across organizations regarding specialty, specialization, and board certification processes and policies.
A third Summit is now planned for June 2017, in Washington DC. The invitees are largely the same as those for Summit 1.0 and Summit 2.0, and the work will be facilitated by COS, ABPP, and ASPPB. In addition, the ABPP Foundation provided a grant to support the attendance of the CCTC representative, and will now be listed as a co-sponsor of the Summit with COS.