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Section IV Report - august 2002 meetings

Barry Dauphin, Ph.D., MSPP Section IV Representative

The most recent Section IV meetings took place at the APA Convention on Friday August 23, 2002 (Senate meeting) and Saturday August 24, 2002 (Open Meeting).  Both were at 7 a.m.  As is usually the case the Section IV meetings at the APA are less well attended than those in the spring.  Ten Local Chapters were represented and one about-to-be chapter (Indianapolis).  The minutes from the Spring meeting were reviewed and accepted.  The Treasurer’s Report was accepted.  Section IV is in good financial shape.  There are five Local Chapters which have not yet paid dues, and letters have been sent to them.

Yet finances were still of importance at these meetings.  The Division made different arrangements for the Hospitality Suites causing some sections (especially Sections IV & V) to become displaced.  The Section IV president made arrangements for the Section IV meetings to take place in an alternative location.  This resulted in a much larger charge being borne by the Section than was planned or budgeted for.  The Section IV president communicated to the Senate that she would be speaking with the Division 39 President elect (Jaine Darwin, Ph.D.) about reimbursing the Section for these unanticipated expenses.  The Division is planning to rent two Hospitality Suites next year for the APA meeting.

However, there may a problem regarding time availability at the APA in terms of programming.  Currently the Division receives 24 hours of programming.  Starting next year it is possible that all the Sections will only be allowed a total of 6 hours of time.  How the time would be divvied up is undecided.  It is still possible that Sections could still have guaranteed time through the Hospitality Suites, but that is an assumption at this point.  This is important because Section IV has had guaranteed unjuried time for a panel.  Although Bill MacGillivray, Ph.D. (Section IV Secretary and Editor of Psychologist/Psychoanalyst, the Division 39 newsletter) indicated that it is likely that this time would still be available through Division resources, it means that our program would not be announced in the APA program, but instead only in the Division program.  This still has to be determined, but I believe that there are some important communications to be listened to.

The Division seems to consistently communicate that it would like to diminish Section IV. We have consistently had problems at the APA meeting getting a room.  Now there is a possibility of weakening our presence at the APA meetings.  No one was scheduled to use the Hospitality Suite on Friday from 7 a.m. - 9 a.m.  but our president was told the suite was unavailable.  Also on Saturday morning, no one was scheduled to use the room from 7 a.m. till 8 a.m.  At 8 a.m. one of the committees was scheduled to use the room (the public information committee if I remember).  We were given the run-around despite the apologies from the Division 39 President Elect.  

The Section IV president-elect has plans underway for the Section IV panels for next year.  One panel will involve the issue of consultation.  In Austin, members of their local chapter volunteer supervision to caretakers at a nursery school, and the panel will address issues related to this.  The other panel will involve the process of clinical change, and one of the panel members will be another Section IV representative (Wayne Ehrisman, Ph.D. from San Antonio).

On Friday the representative to the Division 39 Board gave a brief report.  Two bylaws amendments passed.  One involves a very specific exception to Division 39 rules.  In order to belong to Division 39 a psychologist must also belong to APA.  But there are some peculiar licensing rules in California, and there is now an exception to this for these psychologists.  The other bylaw change approved is that the term of President of Division 39 will be a two-year term.  The current President Elect of Division 39 (Jaine Darwin, Ph.D.) will be the first to serve a two-year term.

The Section IV Senate heard about the development of a new local chapter: Indiana.  Prior to the meeting the Executive Committee had received their proposed bylaws, suggested clarifications and recommended acceptance of their bylaws.  A motion was made to accept Indiana (Indiana Society for Psychoanalytic Thought) as a local chapter.  The motion was passed unanimously.  A second motion was made to grant Indiana $500 to assist with start-up expenses.  Following brief discussion, the motion was passed unanimously.

The president passed a handout around about the prescription privileges issue.  This was merely informational and there was no action asked to be taken in any official way by local chapters.  The president is concerned about the way psychologists are talked about by psychiatric groups interested in preventing psychologists from obtaining prescription privileges.  She addressed this issue as a concern whether or not a psychologist wished to get the privilege for him or herself.  I addressed that there are those of us (me being one) who are concerned about possible harm to the profession for psychologists receiving prescription privileges, and it is not just an issue about whether one wants to personally get them or not.  

The Public Information Committee is going to be offering a service to Section IV chapters in the form of media training.  They will come to local chapters to offer training in working with the media.  On Friday it was reported that Local Chapters would not have to pay for this.

The Division 39 website is under development.  Member information will be kept on the website and the Division will no longer send out a hard copy of the directory.  Members will be able to update their information at any time.  Local chapters who wish to update information on the site can contact Larry Zelnick, Ph.D. (LZel@psychoanalysis.net).  

Dr. Corn addressed the Graduate Student program.  Both students from the Spring Meeting wrote reports on their experiences and this was passed out to the Senate.  Discussion ensued about picking next year’s students.  Kansas City was already slated to be one of the two chapters.  We discussed other chapters as possibilities.  Dallas was selected as the other chapter after discussion.

First up on Day Two of the meetings was the Public Information Committee (PIC) represented by Gemma Ainslie, Ph.D.  The PIC has been in the process of creating a brochure which can be used by clinicians in their offices or used for other purposes.  The brochure gives a “lay” description of psychoanalysis for the sake of “information.”  One copy will go to each member of Division 39.  Multiple copies can be ordered from the Division.  They will also offer to imprint addresses on the order (e.g., a clinician’s address).  Local Chapters could acquire bunches for a price.  Many people seemed to like this idea, but it had the vague/diffuse sense of making people feel good for no apparent reason.  Although I feel it may have some merit, much time and energy seems invested in this as if there is some (unspoken) promise of producing a glorious bounty to therapists.  It seems (to me) to risk taking something very important away from the clinical process, i.e., a description of what you’re doing or what has been described in various circles as “educating the patient.”  This takes important information out of the consulting room and (dis)places into the waiting room (or elsewhere).  I have recently received a copy of the brochure and would be happy to show anyone interested.

The PIC is also coordinating media training for individuals or local chapters.  It is possible that the PIC could offer to come to a local chapter to provide media training.  The unclear part is who would pay for it.  Supposedly there is money for this so that a local chapter would not have to fork over the moolah.  Yet this money would not come from the Division but from APA.  The Section IV Secretary (Bill MacGillivray, Ph.D.) indicated that APA would have say-so over where such money is spent and would only agree to it if its purposes were being served.  But the PIC has requested that the Division 39 Board sponsor a media training forum at the 2003 Spring Meeting.  The training would be open to invited members of Section IV as well as other members of the Division interested in working with the media.  

The Section IV representative to the Division 39 Board reported on the Board meeting from the previous day.  Laura Barbanel, Ph.D., is endorsed for APA presidency.  Someone dropped out of the race, so Stan Maldowsky, Ph.D. dropped in.  It was recommended that people check Stan as their second choice.  Grad Students can submit papers for next year’s convention with a Deadline of July 30, 2003.

The Division 39 Treasurer reported that the Division did not make as much money as was expected for the Spring Meeting.  The Division made $25,000 less than they planned for.  There was another psychoanalytic conference at the same hotel the week before ours.  Now the Conference made a profit, but they were planning for a bigger profit.   And by planning I mean that the annual budget takes such plans into consideration.  So the Division is hurting for money more than expected.  This was discussed in addition to APA’s budget deficit.   So in sizing up the Division’s finances the treasurer recommended dues increases over the next few years.  His recommendation was approved by the board.  Dues will be $75 in 2003; $80 in 2004; $85 in 2005.  Student dues will remain at $10.

The APA Board reviewed the website plans.  There are plans to create a Division 39 listserv or something like it.  Plans are unclear at present.  The Education Committee planned a Sunday workshop regarding graduate/undergraduate education in psychoanalysis.  Harry Sands’ proposal was voted down.  He had offered to donate $25,000 as seed money for psychoanalytic education if the Division would agree to a fund raising effort to raise $1 million.  The Board felt that there was not the time nor energy for that kind of fund raising effort.  

The live supervision experience will continue in Minneapolis (2003 Spring Meeting).  The analyst will be Stephen Cooper, Ph.D.  Certain grad students will present case material.  Students will also have a special meeting with Dr. Cooper.  Russ Newman (head of Practice Directorate) reported on the progress of lawsuit in Virginia against Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  The lawsuit involves the creation of a “phantom” panel.  In essence BC/BS is accused of marketing themselves as having a large panel of providers.  They then slashed reimbursements to providers and lots of psychologists dropped off panel (but marketing continued).

HIPAA was reported on.  If you don’t use 3rd party payers or don’t file electronic claims, you do not have to comply with HIPAA.  However, if a patient files for your services, you still must be HIPAA compliant (this was what was reported at our meetings).  The Practice Directorate will have model forms on the website to aid with filing requirements.  A letter was sent to all APA members with instructions about filing.

The Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered committee is currently doing a needs assessment.  The membership committee reports that there are discrepancies between the Division 39 list of members and APA’s list of Division 39 members.  But APA keeps people as “active” on their list longer than we do when dues have not been paid.  There has been a 3.5 percent increase in new members, but it was reported that there is a problem retaining members.  This is important given all the worry about attracting new members and given that getting “new” people has been strong occupation of the Division for a few years now.  Joe Reppen, Ph.D. was reappointed as editor of Psychoanalytic Psychology (the Division 39 journal).

It was reported that the APA has a budget deficit.  APA had to refinance its real estate in order to pay the bills (now maybe they can afford that big screen TV and DVD player!).  The APA created a 501 (c) (b) organization in order to be able to lobby Congress (as we know 501 (c) (3) organizations have certain parameters placed on what they can/can’t lobby for).  In essence the APA has a PAC (Political Action Committee) which can lobby, endorse candidates, raise money for candidates, give money to candidates, etc.  To jumpstart the PAC, they decided to take money from the Practice Directorate.  Now the Practice Directorate must begin virtually anew.  Apparently these decisions have led to a vocal disagreement between Russ Newman (current head of Practice Directorate who was in favor of this change) and Bryant Welch, Ph.D. (original head of practice directorate who is a practicing psychoanalyst).  They have been making a bigger push for things like Mental Health Parity legislation.  A new ethics code for APA was passed at the APA Board, but a copy of this was not available yet.  The new code of ethics takes effect June 1, 2003.  

After the meeting I learned more about APA’s budget deficit from the National Psychologist. The APA has ten years of accumulated debt and will borrow $120 million to get its financial house in order.  APA has accumulated $15 million in deficit spending since 1992, including deficits of $6 million in 2001 and  $1.8 million this year.  Recent deficits were blamed on September 11 as it was reported that many foreign governments canceled or did not renew subscriptions to APA journals or publications, diverting the money to homeland security.  The money being borrowed represents an “over borrow” as the APA real estate is valued at $93 million.  APA will have a dues increase of $10 for next year (an amount more than was planned).  This has resulted in 85 layoffs, and one third of the Practice Directorate’s positions are vacant.

The various Local Chapters reported at the Open meeting.  First it is important to note that some local chapters were reporting a loss of energy and declining interest amongst members (Southeast Florida and Chicago Association stood out in this way).  The Chicago Open chapter, in addition to having symposia, has created a website to list psychoanalytic friendly universities (for interested students) http:/cocsp.tripod.com.  Philadelphia holds a monthly dinner meeting on a Friday evening from 7-10 p.m. with a speaker.  They charge about $80 for this and have been able to do well financially with this format.  They are also offering CE credits and have offered some courses to school psychologists who have been mandated to receive particular kinds of credits in testing, etc.   They also appear to benefit from their proximity to NYC (which actually has no local chapters).  San Antonio has a regular study group going and hosting the Section I traveling road show within the past year.  Appalachia has had Saturday morning workshops (4 hours).  They charge $50-$60 and have had several people come in from out of town willing to accept a very small (or no) stipend.  Valerie Giberman, M.S.W. (former MSPP officer and member) has become active in their chapter.  Austin has a large number of members: 122 (at least considering where they are, though the closest institute is in Dallas I believe).  They seem to do fairly well financially by offering a number of ongoing courses.  

Psychoanalysis is alive in the hinterlands.  The different local chapters have different ways of going about psychoanalytic education.  Most offer some kind of meetings (though none who were present at this meeting seem to have the frequency that we have).  Some engage in smaller forms of workshops at a decent frequency (one a month or every other month) for which they charge modest fees and try to keep expenses down.  Most of the organizations reported on their activities in financial terms (i.e., how they’re doing moneywise).  So this remains significant.  It also provides a compact way for local chapters to describe their activities, but there was too much of an emphasis on money in my opinion.  My report of MSPP, especially our stand against MCE, was received well.