Originally published: . Volume 2, No. 9. Source pages: 15, 16.
The first meeting of psychologists from the Lafayette area was held on April 27th at Imonelli Italian Restaurant in Lafayette. A similar group was started in Lafayette in the 80’s but reportedly only lasted approximately six months for unknown reasons. Having such a group in which to network, share information, collaborate, and socialize has been a desire of mine for many years, and I finally decided to bring it into fruition. I sent out 70 letters of invitation, and for this first meeting, there were eight in attendance. There are quite a few others who are interested in being a part of this group, but were unable to make it to the first meeting. Although I was somewhat disappointed at the small turn out, various members of the Baton Rouge Area Society of Psychologists (BRASP) assured me that this was a decent number, as their core group is typically only 10-12 members. BRASP has been running successfully since 1983 and meets monthly, for networking and presentations by various guest speakers.
I must make an embarrassing admission: In the invitation letter sent out for this first meeting, I erroneously set the date as Wednesday, May 27th; however, it was intended for Wednesday, April 27th. The letter requests an email be sent if there was interest in attending, so only those who emailed me prior to April 27th knew that the date was incorrectly written. Because of this error, another mail-out will be sent inviting Lafayette psychologists to this same meeting for Wednesday May 25th (as May 27th is a Friday), to be held again at Imonelli’s restaurant. At the meeting was a mixture of more recently licensed psychologists, as well as some more seasoned or retired psychologists. In attendance were doctors Jimmie Cole, John Morella, Henry Lagarde, Doug DeMahy, Jessica Brown, Kristin Duhe, Gina Beverly, and myself. For this first meeting, we spent time introducing ourselves to one another, with some getting reacquainted with colleagues they had not seen in many years. There was a lot of diversity among the group in terms of career paths. Some shared history about how they were active in getting psychology out from under medicine and the recent activities surrounding Act 251, which placed medical psychologists back under the medical board. LPA legislative chair, Jessica Brown, Ph.D., spoke about the bill that was recently filed by Senator Willie Mount (SB 226) which proposes to dissolve the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (LSBEP) and the Louisiana Counseling Association board (LCA), and create one Omnibus Board. Discussion surrounded potential consequences and what legislative calls to action might be beneficial to psychologists. All mental health groups are strongly opposed to this bill and are planning to fight its passage. All in attendance expressed thanks for getting this group started, and are eager to participate in future meetings.
Input received from those psychologists in attendance indicated that the preference for these meetings will be for every other month. Input will also be received from those psychologists in attendance at the May 25th meeting as to their recommendation for meeting frequency. For now, the third meeting, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, June 23rd will focus on reviewing the bylaws of BRASP and determining the more functional aspects of the group (i.e., objective, membership, group name, officers, dues, tax status, etc.). The meetings from June forward are tentatively going to be scheduled for every 4th Thursday, unless there is opposition from the group. If you have an interest in attending, or have suggestions for our group, please email me at gailgill@msn.com.
(L to R) Drs. Hank LaGarde, Jimmie Cole, Gail Gillespie, John Morella (mostly hidden), Doug DeMahy, and Gina Beverly (turned away). Also attending were Drs. Jessica Brown and Kristin Duhe. The group is being organized for networking and information sharing in the community by Dr. Gillespie and is scheduled to meet again on May 25 at Imonelli’s Restaurant in Lafayette. Interested persons are invited to contact Dr. Gillespie at gailgill@msn.com. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Gillespie)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.