Article archive / November 1, 2009
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 3. Source pages: 1, 4.
Dr. James Childerston, President of the Academy of Medical Psychology (AMP), President of the American Board of Medical Psychology (ABMP), and board member in The National Alliance of Professional Psychology Providers (NAPPP), authored a letter to the Attorney General in July this year. In the letter Dr. Childerston raised objections to the restriction of the title, “Medical Psychologist” in Act 251. He wrote, “By focusing on the prescribing aspects of a medical psychologist’s practice, the statute denies and diminishes the rights of non-prescribing medical psychologists who have met our rigorous criteria to practice as a medical psychologist.” He wrote that the law infringes on AMP’s right to continue to certify psychologists in Louisiana with the title “MP” or “Board Certified in Medical Psychology.”
Dr. Jerry Morris is a board member of both NAPPP and ABMP. He also is managing editor for The Clinical Practitioner, a NAPPP publication. In the October edition, he wrote, “Medical Psychology, and indeed the title to the specialty can not be owned or controlled by a state or small group of psychologists but belongs to “psychology,” “practice,” and is an additional specialty area under a general practitioner license.”
Dr. John Caccavale, a board member of both NAPPP and the ABMP, wrote in AMP’s October newsletter that, “LAMP has given organized medicine a road map to control psychologists. In Oregon, for example, the physicians there are demanding the same arrangement as in Louisiana as a prescribing bill there is being considered. In California, the California Association of Family Physicians is also demanding that prescribing psychologists be under the control of the medical board. We can now expect that Louisiana’s example will be followed as the norm in future prescribing bills.”
In a communication with Psychology Times, Dr. Caccavale said that, “Prescriptive authority should not be considered a hybrid profession. Prescribing is nothing more than a proficiency that a psychologist obtains. Having RxP psychologists going over to the medical board really is the least of the issue, in my opinion. The problem is the creation of the hybrid profession that I see as the most danger to the practice of psychology…”
He added, “My guess is that in the long run, if nothing is done about 251, most Louisiana psychologists will have to prescribe or they will not be able to compete as psychology has been redefined in the act. Those that do not prescribe will be placed with counselors.”
(Ed Note: According to their website, NAPPP represents the interests of “Psychology Doctors in the Health Care System.” Board members include Drs. Jack Wiggins, Lenore Walker, and Nick Cummings.)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.