Article archive / September 1, 2011
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 1. Source pages: 1, 4.
In a phone interview last week with the Times, Dr. Stephen DeMers, Executive Director of the Association for State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), said that there is no other state where individuals practicing psychology are regulated by a medical board. And he said, “Louisiana is playing with fire.”
The Times asked Dr. DeMers about Louisiana’s new regulatory structure in general, and also specifically what ASPPB thought about the recent decision by the state psychology board to allow those not licensed under the psychology board to supervise candidates for a psychology license.
Dr. DeMers noted that he was very familiar with what is happening in Louisiana. “Louisiana is going down a different path than everyone else,” he said. “It [Louisiana] is definitely an outlier.”
“If they [medical psychologists] ditch their psychology license, they shouldn’t be allowed to supervise ….” he said. He pointed out that the ASPPB model licensing act and other fundamentals established by the ASPPB indicate that the supervisor is to be licensed under the psychology board.
ASPPB serves member boards throughout the US and Canada, including all fifty states and provides a source for the regulation of psychologists. Their site notes that ASPPB is the “foremost authority in regulation and credentialing of psychologists.” ASPPB develops and updates the licensing exam for psychologists and focuses on issues of mobility for practitioners.
Act 251 placed medical psychologists and their practice of psychology under the medical board. In June, the psychology board (LSBEP) reversed their decision from October 2010. The reversal allows medical psychologists who do not hold a psychology license under LSBEP to qualify as supervisors. The change in the opinion was prompted by testimony from Dr. Robert Marier, the Executive Director of the state medical board, and Dr. John Bolter, representing an advisory board under medicine.
Speaking about the 65 states and jurisdictions that the ASPPB serves, Dr. DeMers explained, “In most licensing laws and in our model licensing act it is the licensed psychologist who must supervise, and who must be licensed under the psychology board. The board approves, actually ratifies, the supervisor,” he said. “The path that Louisiana is taking “doesn’t fit.”
In regard to the supervisory issues, Dr. DeMers said, “It might satisfy the rules in Louisiana, but not in any other state. The implications for people down the road could be catastrophic.”
Members of the Medical Psychology Advisory Committee, the group that advises the medical board about medical psychology, includes Drs. Jim Quillin, Glenn Ally, Warren Lowe, and John Bolter. All have retained their psychology licenses according to the verification system on the psychology board website.
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