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ADPTC NEWSLETTER  

                           December 2009

 

 

 

Editor:  Phyllis Terry Friedman

Associate Editors:  Don Morgan, Vic Pantesco

Web Master:  Michael Taylor

 

President's Column 

Erica Wise, Ph.D.

In her final column as president, Erica offers thoughts and feelings about self care, modeling, and the growth of ADPTC.

Read More >>

 

What's In A Name?

Bob Hatcher, Ph.D.

Bob Hatcher and Vic Pantesco offer supports, challenges, wonderings, and invitations about the "ADPTC" name. 

Read More >>

 

The Briar Patch:  Thorny "Minor" Challenges for Directors

Getting Stale

Vic Pantesco, Ph.D.

Need familiarity breed contempt?  Thoughts on the line between "veteran" and "jaded" as a Director.

Read More >>

 

Technology:  Keeping Electronic Records with Carepaths

Colleen Byrne, Ph.D.

Colleen tells us more about her conversion from the world of paper cuts, stocking, stacking, paper clips, and cleanups to that of electronic record keeping.  Read more about her clinic's use of Carepaths that she described at our meeting a couple of years ago.

Read More >>

 

Subpoenas, Court Orders and Other Legal Oddities Mary Alice Conroy, Ph.D.

MCj01051880000[1]What do you do when you and your notes are subpoenaed to court?  A mini-lecture on audio file by an expert with 30 years dealing with subpoenas, court orders and other legal oddities. 

Read More >>

 

Director's Toolbox:  Improving the Climate in Psychology Training Clinics

Phyllis Terry Friedman, Ph.D.

You have to look at these two practical, salient helps for your clinic ambience.  And there is a message too.

Read More >>

 

ADPTC at APA

Listing of Presentations by Members

Read More >>

 

Fulbright Specialists Program http://www.cies.org/specialists

Sean O'Hallaron was awarded this Fulbright which funded a semester in Thailand.  Click to see a picture of Sean in "leech boots" and find out more about the program.

Read More >>

 

Cool Little Reviews of Stuff

Don Morgan, Psy.D.

Don invites us into a neat world of useful, reflective, informative doo dads.  It really is cool.

Read More >>

 

New Technologies and New Ethical Dilemmas:  Reading List of Texts and Articles 

Check it out. Does this sound good: Maheu, M. M., Pulier, M. L., Wilhelm, F. H., McMenamin, J. P., & Brown-Connolly, N. E. (2005). The mental health professional and the new technologies: A handbook for practice today.

If yes, then look at the other six on this useful list.

Read More >>

 

 

ADPTC In 2010

Text Box: The dates for the CCTC 2010 Conference including next year's ADPTC annual meeting are February 10-13th. The conference will be held at the Hilton at Walt Disney World in Orlando. More information will be forthcoming from the conference planning group in the next few weeks but PLEASE get it on your calendars!

 

mickey50


President's Column 

Erica Wise, Ph.D.

 

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" Attributed to Rabbi Hillel ~2000 years ago.

 

These words almost immediately come to mind for me as I sit down to write my final column as your president. This quote is meaningful to me at many different levels--both personally and professionally. For each of us as training clinic directors, it is obvious (but not always remembered!), that we must take care of ourselves in order to be effective in our professional roles as administrators, clinical supervisors, clinicians, teachers and researchers. A bit less obvious is that we serve as professional role models for our graduate students. In many programs, graduate students look to the clinic director as a primary professional role model. When we demonstrate effective professionalism and self-care we are setting the stage for our students to learn how to balance multiple commitments in their own lives.

The selected quote is also relevant to ADPTC as an organization. We have had important discussions at conferences and on the listserv regarding how we might best balance our own internal needs as an organization versus how active a role we want to take in national issues that impact professional psychology education and training. Historically, ADPTC has been primarily focused on sharing resources among member directors. As we have taken a central role in the national debate on how best to integrate the competency based model, concern has at times been expressed that we may be leaning too far towards involvement in public discourse to the detriment of providing forums and resources for our members. Several joint meetings (with CUDCP and APPIC) may have heightened these concerns. I would encourage us to view this as essentially a false dichotomy. A dialectical understanding would suggest that our involvement at the national level solidifies our role as experts in clinical training and ensures broad academic commitment across the profession to high quality clinical training in clinics that are administratively connected to academic doctoral programs. Similarly, our credibility at the national level is bolstered by our expertise as trainers. So, while balance is critical, we can't meaningfully do either one with out the other.

Our March 2009 meeting in Chapel Hill was an excellent chance for us to reconnect as an organization. I hope that many of you will attend the upcoming CCTC meeting in Orlando (please see our website at ADPTC.org for more information and registration links). This will be an excellent chance to continue the essential dialectic of supporting each other during the ADPTC-only programming and increasing our voice in professional psychology education and training at the national level.

Erica


Erica-Cape Tribulation Aus

Erica Wise at the edge of the Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland,

Australia during a trip to visit training clinics. 


What's In A Name?

Bob Hatcher, Ph.D.

 

This article is part of a dialogue about our ADPTC acronym.  Other acronyms are listed below. 

 

When the group of 12 (or whatever the number was) met in Chicago in 1998, we took as our key goal the strengthening of the positions and leverage of Clinic directors, and this is a key part of what we do now too I think. I certainly wouldn't want to lose this part of our organization's backbone. But let me talk a bit about where the idea for the name change came from.  

The impetus for this idea was an ongoing discussion at the CCTC meeting about the training councils. There has been general awareness that training councils grow and mature as organizations. Many of them started, as ADPTC did, with a focus on the needs and concerns of the leaders of the organizations, CUDCP being a prime example. As the organizations have matured, their focus has tended to shift towards the broader issues related to the organizations while not losing their interest in the needs of the directors. So CUDCP has put a lot of energy into internship issues, competency issues, and the scientist-practitioner model, as well as serving as a forum for ongoing directors and a training ground for new ones. APPIC has a similar model, though it was never to my knowledge focused only on internship training directors. Many other councils now have missions that include a strong focus on the needs of their directors but also incorporate broader goals and issues related to their organizations (e.g., ACCTA, CCPTP, NCSPP). Thus, these organizations have become aware of their broader roles as representatives for key aspects of the training of psychologists. On the other hand, some organizations have not advanced much in this regard, either because they are very new, or because they never got off the ground organizationally. They tend to stand out at the CCTC meetings because of their relative insularity.

The ADPTC has matured rapidly and strikingly in recent years.  Our current mission statement actually does not focus on directors but focuses on the role of training clinics in training psychologists. Much of what we do is focused on strengthening and improving the clinics' diversity, fundraising, research, and competencies rather than the directors. And we have become a significant voice in the broader training council community for these issues and for practicum training more generally, which we have worked to balance with our focus on directors and their concerns.

I think it's a reality that we've gotten on strong footing nationally, the more so lately as practicum has come into focus for the field. We have a real and significant base of experience as practicum trainers that benefits the field. This has led to the two joint meetings with CUDCP and APPIC. I remember very clearly now ten years ago when Brian Lewis told us that he was talking with the CCTC folks (I believe it was Paul Nelson, who as Associate Director of the Education Directorate set up CCTC in the first place) about ADPTC joining the group. To me this was almost inconceivable -- I was just running this little clinic, managing caseloads and supervisors and clients and students -- what would clinic directors have to say at a meeting like this? I also remember how amazingly great it was to find a group of people with common concerns and interests. So I'm thinking of "maturity" both in terms of our recognizing and embracing our broader national role, but also in terms of our ability to do this while remaining close to one another, and keeping our core values of sharing with each other and helping each other, which are kept alive so nicely by our great website and listserv, the wonderful newsletter that Phyllis does, and by our meetings. I do think that we have struggled a bit at our annual meetings to find a good balance between bigger issues and our own down-home clinic issues. But in fact we are not a "bigger" organization in terms of numbers of members -- we are "bigger" in terms of our importance to other training councils and to the field more generally. Can be remain close to one another as we become more important to others? I'm thinking we can. 

It's on this basis that I'd recommend we should seriously consider a name change.

 

Other thoughts:

Vic Pantesco, Ph.D.

I have two lingering thoughts.

The first is pragmatic:  what about other clinics (non doctoral, for example) that can or could lay claim to training psychologists?  In Vermont, I believe, there is a Masters level psychologist license, for example.  And in the current market of licensed mental health providers proliferation, what might we want to look at carefully?  There may be legal or other sensible blocks to excluding any clinic that trains "psychologists."  Etc.

The second is one I have been personally watching for years, and it turns on Bob's word "matures."  I wonder what that means?  Getting so big and powerful so as to have a forming voice, etc. I suspect within important big picture matters as Bob suggests.  And this is important. But I sorely hate to lose that quality of relationship, camaraderie, shared awareness of each other's jobs and life at a very unusual level, that must happen with bigness and maturity.  I perceive for me anyway that some of that loss is already happening. 

 A name shift question could only rise to this level when thresholds of maturity are already pushing at the corners.  So I for one think we need to engage our growth with the candor, insight, forward-looking perspective, and values that have made us "what we are" - or at least what we have been.  This exchange so far still shows our stuff.

 


The Briar Patch: 

Thorny "Minor" Challenges for Directors

Getting Stale

Vic Pantesco, Ph.D.

 

The Thorn: The Line Between "Veteran" and "Jaded" - A Subtle Creeper or a Great Divide?

          Reflecting recently on my first ADPTC meeting in Dallas in 2001, I considered two things:  how there were only about 12 of us in a small half circle, and that I have been doing this Director work for over nine years now.  While this has been rich on a few levels for me, and edifying for the most part to see the organization grow, part of my review bent ever so subtly yet compellingly to an awareness of familiarity bordering on – dare I say it – staleness. 

          Perhaps we have research on this:  when, on average, in certain samples, controlling for appropriate potential confounds, a psychologist may begin to experience this as a Director of a training clinic.  In unscientific, cliché:  been-there….

Some places I noticed this in this year:  doing my orientation in-service regarding documentation, which was OK, but a slight twinge at the inevitable and repeated question that comes just short of accusing us of terminal anality.  Or, how the computer's not working in room 4 just about did in someone's ever succeeding in this field. 

          I suppose it is about patience in the face of sameness in the predictable negatively energized places within what we do.    

 

To Dull the Pain

          This may not so much be about dulling the pain as about injecting energy and perspective.   Our clinic team of supervisors remains a source of support and initiative.  Here is a place in which longevity has been an enormous benefit.  Our team has been intact and working together for over seven years.  We know each other well to the point of support and affiliation that goes beyond the nitty gritty, and this includes our ability to tend to our levels of frustration or jadedness, where they come from (specific to a group of students, house politics, budget,...,  or a clutch of life pressures beyond the clinic [what, can there be life beyond the clinic?!]), and possible pathways for coping and solution.

          There is fun too of course.  If I begin to lose sight of that it's a sure sign of trouble.  So, our department is going bowling in two weeks.  I have set up a contest in which one may bring suitably adorned bowling pins to put in the racks, and if you get a strike with that in the head pin slot, you get the prize.  The prize? --  Membership on a committee that meets weekly for two hours with no agenda.  Just organizing this got juices flowing in the fall here in New Hampshire. 

          Our work I find is never boring, but it can invite impatience with the familiar that may breed burnout.  And of course, each year the new hearts and minds beckon me to reach once more into the place of excited teaching and training, con brio.   

         

Vic

Vic getting some much-needed therapy from his rock troll therapist on Block Island, RI last summer. 

 


Technology: 

Keeping Electronic Records with Carepaths

Colleen Byrne, Ph.D.

 

Since early 2005, the Psychology Clinic at the University of Maryland in College Park has been using the Carepaths for electronic record-keeping. In hopes of both simplifying our record-keeping and also cutting paper costs, we switched to electronic record-keeping with Carepaths. I originally learned about Carepaths from Eric Sauer.  Although I had intended to use it only for the OQ45, I gave the electronic record-keeping function a trial run and ended up liking it a lot. CarePaths offers the eRecord, "a multi-modal, web-based Behavioral Health Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Practice Management system." It is a "secure, web-based and HIPPA-compliant record-keeping system". It is also highly customizable. Our Clinic uses only 30-40% of Carepaths's available services.

For our Clinic, the main benefits of using Carepaths are 1) low cost as compared to products like Titanium, 2) the convenience of access from any secure, internet-connected computer, and 3) the security provided by customizable access levels for supervisors, practicum students, and support staff.  Additionally, electronic record-keeping has increased efficiency and accountability for practicum students and supervisors alike. The web-access is a good fit for students with hectic schedules; I find that students have been more likely to write progress notes on time now that the time and date are electronically stamped. This has been true for supervisors as well. Electronic record-keeping has made it easier for supervisors to monitor the progress of a multiple students' work. Also, students in need of assistance are more easily identified and can be provided with feedback before the end of the semester.

          At the UMD Psychology Clinic, we primarily use the following the Carepaths modules: Progress Notes, Clinical Screenings; Assessment Center, Intake Assessments, Treatment Planning, Discharge Planning, Patient Management, and System Administration:

 

          Practically, it works like this. After logging on, a user can enter text for a progress note directly into the template or they can cut and paste from a MS Word document. The practicum students "sign" their work (by entering their password next to their name) as "pending", which allows supervisors to review and/or make corrections before signing a document as "completed". If a student wishes to have time to self-edit, they can sign their work as a "draft" so that only they have access until they are ready to submit the document as "pending."

Carepaths has many features such as scheduling, internal email, accounting, and billing that we have chosen not to use. (Since collected funds are processed through our Psychology Department's business office, we keep billing and scheduling on separate programs to maximize client confidentiality.) One drawback with Carepaths is that I still need to rely on the practicum students and supervisors to let me know when a case is closed. Further, unlike Titanium and some other products, Carepaths does not offer query-type searches of clients based on demographic or diagnostic variables. (So, if I wanted to know how many depressed males came to our Clinic in the last year, there is no quick way to find out). I can't say that Carepaths will work for every Clinic, but it has been wonderful for us.

 

To contact Carepaths: Go to http://carepaths.com  call 800.357.1200. Ask for Geoff Gray and identify yourself as a Clinic Director and member of ADPTC.

     


Subpoenas, Court Orders and Other Legal Oddities

Mary Alice Conroy, Ph.D.

MCj01051880000[1]This is an 8.5 minute audio file discussing the following legal issue:  A therapist receives a subpoena from a client's attorney requesting the therapist's notes and testimony regarding damages in a sexual harassment against a former employer.  Mary Alice outlines the issues and tells what you should do after you cringe.  Click here for the audio file


Director's Toolbox: 

Improving the Climate in Psychology Training Clinics

Phyllis Terry Friedman, Ph.D.

 

Better than Muzak:  pandora.com

Pandora is an internet radio that allows you to create your own radio station or use one of their themed stations ranging from classical piano-romantic period to jazz piano.  For non-commercial Pandora, (no ads!), the fee is $36/year.  The music is played through a computer utilizing computer speakers.  We chose an instrumental jazz station that is listenable, soft, easy, not Muzak and set it up to play in the waiting room.  It has transformed the ambience.

 

African American art

In response to the Diversity Committee's recommendations that clinics have diversity in their art, one of our students suggested the following sites for African American posters:

http://www.printsandstuff.com/32150.html

 

http://heritagesart.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&inc_subcat=1&keywords=&categories_id=&pfrom=0&pto=50&x=5&y=2.  

The second link contains over 1,500 prints. 

 


Cool Little Reviews of Stuff

Edited by Don Morgan, Psy.D.

 

From Elaine Shpungin:

Helpful in setting up meetings (or parties) with lots of people: www.doodle.com [and also www.Meetingwizard.com]

Helpful in working together when not in same place: www.freeconference.com

 

Karen Saules gives us:

This is a cool place to find meaningful expressions that capture a sentiment you might want to convey. For example, I just found a great snippet for a student who will be graduating at LONG last:

"This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore."

http://www.storypeople.com/storypeople/Home.do?inMenu=true

 

Tony Cellucci offers:

In teaching ethics, I sometimes play podcasts from "The Ethicist"

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/ethicist.

 

Vic Pantesco recommends:

Tracy Kidder's book about Dr. Paul Farmer's work with the poor in Haiti, Peru, and Russia is called Mountains Beyond Mountains.  It is a wonderful book that really is devoted to matters of diversity, resources, and health.  Wonderfully written and inspirational though not religious. 

 

From Don Morgan:

If you are also a Blackberry user or abuser, you will find kindred spirits seeking all manner of help, add-ons, and advice at www.crackberry.com.  May the force be with you.

 

Want a website that will just about fix or optimize ANYTHING in your life?  Go to http://lifehacker.com and sign up for their daily email.  Every day you'll get something or someplace to go that is interesting, useful or fun.  Life, Mac, Windows and Gizmos are all categories to explore on the site.  Examples:

*       Aerofoil keeps laptop battery alive

*       Top 10 tactics for productive travel and more

*       Putting together a winter home emergency plan

*       Fold a world record setting paper airplane

*       Keep razors sharp with mineral oil

*       Top 10 underhyped web applications of 2009

*       Lifehacker readers' favorite pens and more


ADPTC at APA:  Presentations by Members

Randall Cox:

Symposium: "Models of Training Focused on Issues Related to Disability" with discussant Emil Rodolfo; chaired a Discussion Hour: "Imagining the Future-Disability Issues and Ethical Practice" with discussant Jennifer Erickson Cornish

 

Lisa Frey:

"A Pebble in the Pond--Relational Cultural Theory and Counselor Development"

 

Mary Alice Conroy:

Symposium: Subpoenas, Court Orders, and Other Legal Oddities--A Stress Reducing Primer for Practitioners. Sponsored by the APA Committee on Legal Issues and the APA Ethics Committee. (see audio file)


Fulbright Specialists Program

http://www.cies.org/specialists/

Sean O'Hallaron was awarded this Fulbright which funded a semester in Thailand.  Below is information about the award.

 

Thailand2008 263

 

Sean in 'leech boots' at the Khao Yai National Park. "I went with 2 American friends who live outside Bangkok.  We went to the national park with 'Kun Nine,' an amazing tour guide, bird expert, and all around fabulous naturalist.  He knows the dense jungle like the back of his hand. We saw many kinds of birds and primates, and I was especially struck by the gibbons high in the forest canopy.  I can do a pretty good imitation of a gibbon!"

 

 

The Fulbright Specialists Program sends U.S. faculty and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at overseas academic institutions for a period of 2 to 6 weeks. The program is designed to award grants to qualified U.S. faculty and professionals to engage in short-term collaborative 2 to 6 week projects at higher education institutions in over 100 countries worldwide.  Project activities focus on the strengthening and development needs of higher education institutions and do not fund personal research. Eligible activities include teacher training, short-term lecturing, conducting seminars, special conferences or workshops, as well as collaborating on curriculum planning, institutional and/or faculty development. 

 

Sample Activities

§  Conduct needs assessments, surveys, institutional or programmatic research at non-U.S. post-secondary academic institutions

§  Take part in specialized academic programs and conferences

§  Consult with administrators and instructors of non-U.S. post-secondary institutions on faculty development

§  Present lectures at graduate and undergraduate levels

§  Participate in or lead seminars or workshops at non-U.S. post-secondary academic institutions

§  Develop and/or assess academic curricula or educational materials at non-U.S. post-secondary academic institutions

§  Conduct teacher-training programs at the tertiary level

 

Grants

The grant include international economy fare travel and approved related expenses plus a $200 per day honorarium.

 

Qualifications

§  Education, training, professional standing and position

§  International, national, and/or regional reputation as a scholar, artist or professional

§  Quality of professional accomplishments, as evidenced through publications, research grants, awards, work experience, exhibition records and papers delivered at conferences, seminars and workshops

§  Teaching ability, as evidenced by references, teaching awards, courses taught, pedagogical approach, participation in innovative teaching, professional training or curriculum projects

§  Demonstrated currency in the selected field of expertise

§  Administrative/leadership experience


New Technologies and New Ethical Dilemmas: 

Reading List of Texts and Articles 

 

Boschen, M. J., & Casey, L. M. (2008). The use of mobile telephones as adjuncts to cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39, 546-552.**

Fischer, C. B., & Fried, A. L. (2003). Internet-mediated psychological services and the American Psychological Ethics Code. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 40, 103-111.

Ford, G. G. (2006). Ethical reasoning for mental health professionals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. **

Maheu, M. M., Pulier, M. L., Wilhelm, F. H., McMenamin, J. P., & Brown-Connolly, N. E. (2005). The mental health professional and the new technologies: A handbook for practice today. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. **

Mallen, J. J., Vogel, D. L., & Rochlen, A. B. (2005). Practical aspects of online counseling: Ethics, training, technology, and competency. The Counseling Psychologist, 33, 776-818. **

Naglieri, J. A. Drasgow, F., Schmit, M. Handler, L., Prifitera, A., Margolis, A., & Velasquez, R. (2004). Psychological testing on the internet: new problems, old issues. American Psychologist, 59, 150-162.

Sturgill, A., & Jongsuwanwattana, P. (2007). Legal and ethical concerns of collecting data online. In (Ed.) R. Reynolds. Handbook of research on electronic surveys and measurements.  Hershey, PA: IGI Publishing.

Whitehead, L. C. (2007). Methodological and ethical issues in internet-mediated research in the field of health: An integrated review of the literature. Social Science and Medicine, 65, 782-791.