On June 26, the President issued an Order to modernize and reform the hiring
process for federal work candidates.

In the introduction, President Trump wrote, “America’s private employers have
modernized their recruitment practices to better identify and secure talent through
skills- and competency-based hiring. As the modern workforce evolves, the Federal
Government requires a more efficient approach to hiring.

“Employers adopting skills- and competency-based hiring recognize that an overreliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates and undermines labor-market efficiencies. Degree-based hiring is especially likely to exclude qualified candidates for jobs related to emerging technologies and those with weak connections between educational attainment and the skills or competencies required to perform them.

“Moreover, unnecessary obstacles to opportunity disproportionately burden low-income Americans and decrease economic mobility.

“My Administration is committed to modernizing and reforming civil service hiring through improved identification of skills requirements and effective assessments of the skills job seekers possess. We encourage these same practices in the private sector. Modernizing our country’s processes for identifying and hiring talent will provide America a more inclusive and demand- driven labor force.

According to the President, this effort “…directs important, merit-based reforms that will replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring and will hold the civil service to a higher standard — ensuring that the individuals most capable of performing the roles and responsibilities required of a specific position are those hired for that position — that is more in line with the principles on which the merit system rests.

The President is directing the heads of the Office of Personnel Management and
Office of Management and Budget, the Assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy, and the heads of agencies, to review and revise all job classification and
qualification standards for positions within the competitive service, nd that changes
to job classification and qualification standards shall be made available to the
public within 120 days. Reforms include the following:

An agency may prescribe a minimum educational requirement for employment in the Federal competitive service only when a minimum educational qualification is legally required to perform the duties of the position in the State or locality where those
duties are to be performed.

Position descriptions and job postings published by agencies for positions within the competitive service should be based on the specific skills and competencies required to perform those jobs.

Section 3 of the Order addresses “Improving the Use of Assessments in the Federal Hiring Process.”

“(a) In addition to the other requirements of this order, the Director of OPM [Office
of Personnel Management] shall work with the heads of all agencies to ensure that, within 180 days of the date of this order, for positions within the competitive service, agencies assess candidates in a manner that does not rely solely on educational attainment to determine the extent to which candidates possess relevant knowledge, skills, competencies, and abilities. The heads of all agencies shall develop or identify
such assessment practices. (b) In assessing candidates, agencies shall not rely solely on candidates’ self-evaluations of their stated abilities. Applicants must clear other assessment hurdles in order to be certified for consideration. (c) Agencies shall continually evaluate the effectiveness of different assessment strategies to promote and protect the quality and integrity of their hiring processes.

“For purposes of this order: (a) the term “assessment” refers to any valid and reliable method of collecting information on an individual for the purposes of making a decision about qualification, hiring, placement, promotion, referral, or entry into programs leading to advancement;…”

The Order is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidentialactions/executive-order-modernizingreforming-assessment-hiring-federal-jobcandidates/

The Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) has named Dr. Erin Reuther, PhD, ABPP,
recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Service Award, announced at a recent meeting.

This award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the
professional field of psychology in Louisiana and beyond, by their professional service, noted to the officials.

The Awards Committee recognized Dr. Reuther for her dedication and leadership in
legislative issues and as special task team leader for matters related to Covid-19, as well as for her accomplishments in the role of President-Elect.

“In her leadership of the Legislative Affairs Committee, Dr. Reuther has created an active work group of psychologists who have been monitoring legislation which affects mental health issues in Louisiana. She is also leading LPA’s efforts to gather and disseminate information on COVID-19 during a time of crisis for psychologists in the state.

“Through her work on these committees, Dr. Reuther has demonstrated the abilities of a true leader who is able to bring together psychologists of different backgrounds and to shape them into an effective work group,” said the Committee. “In her role as President-Elect of LPA, Dr. Reuther has also provided outstanding leadership to the
Executive Council.”

Dr. Reuther is a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist. She works at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, providing patient care to children and adolescents with pediatric illness in both inpatient and outpatient health/pediatric psychology.

The regular legislative session ended on June 1 at 6 p.m. and the special 30-day session began one minute later at 6:01. The regular session was fragmented say observers, adjourning one week after it began due to the coronavirus and picking up only again on May 4. Some estimate that up to two-thirds of the bills introduced were dropped.  

The special session will address the states budget, not dealt with in the first session. According to the Proclamation to convene, only 41 items will be addressed. These include operating expenses of the state government and measures to appropriate funds. Other items include the Coronavirus Aide and Economic Security Act, the emergency unemployment compensation filed by persons impacted Covid19, and licensure of medical professionals during a declared public health emergency. Insurance dispute resolution for healthcare services, coverage for home health services, extension of filing for state and local tax returns, and expansion of broadband coverage, are also among the 41 topics.  

Senate Bill 458, initiated by the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (LSBEP) and authored by Senator Luneau from Alexandria, was not heard in committee. The measure set out ambitious changes to the Psychology Practice Act, but was put on hold after officers from the Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) raised objections. Dr. Greg Gormanous, Chair of Legislative Affairs for LSBEP, established an Ad Hoc Legislative Collaborative Committee composed of community members who have been studying the issues. 

Some bills did make it through the chaotic session. These include the following (excerpts are from the digests): 

HB 317 by Thompson establishes an autism spectrum disorder designation for a person’s driver’s license. The new law authorizes an applicant for a driver’s license who has autism spectrum disorder to request a designation and requires the designation to be placed on his driver’s license. The new law requires the applicant to provide a sworn statement from a qualified medical or mental health professional licensed in La. or any U.S. state or territory verifying his disability and prohibits any additional fee for the designation. The new law requires a driver who has autism spectrum disorder to provide a statement from a qualified medical or mental health professional […] authorized to diagnose autism spectrum disorder.  

The new law requires the Dept. of Public Safety and Corrections, public safety services, to establish and implement a law enforcement training course relative to law enforcement officers’ interactions with persons who have autism spectrum disorder, in addition to the requirements of present law. And it requires the course to instruct law enforcement officers on sensitivity and awareness to ensure equitable treatment and how to effectively communicate and interact with persons who have autism spectrum disorder.  

HB 449 by Echols also passed. In present law, the Louisiana Telehealth Access Act (R.S. 40:1223.1 et seq.), defines “telehealth”, in pertinent part, as a mode of delivering healthcare services that utilizes information and communication technologies to enable the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of patients at a distance from healthcare providers. The new law amends this definition to provide that healthcare services delivered via telehealth include behavioral health services. Stipulates that, for purposes of proposed law, “behavioral health services” means those services as defined in present law that are appropriate for the patient and delivered by a licensed mental health professional, acting within the scope of applicable state laws and his professional license for services identified by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), to treat mental illness or substance use.  

Present law, the Behavioral Health Services Provider Licensing Law (R.S. 40:2151 et seq.), authorizes the provision of behavioral health services in residential settings, clinic settings on an outpatient basis, and in home or community settings. The new law amends present law to authorize the provision of behavioral health services through telehealth, and stipulates that the provision of behavioral health services in any authorized setting shall be subject to rules and regulations of LDH. 

The present law known as the Behavioral Health Law (R.S. 28:1 et seq.) authorizes psychiatrists to conduct via telemedicine a required examination of a person with a behavioral health condition who is subject to admission by emergency certificate to a treatment facility. […] The new law retains present law and authorizes psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners to perform these examinations, and to do so via telemedicine as present law authorizes for psychiatrists. 

HB 819 by Bagley authorizes the recommendation of medical marijuana by physicians for treating additional conditions and authorizes any state-licensed physician to recommend medical marijuana. New law retains present law and adds all of the following to the list of debilitating medical conditions which qualify a patient for treatment with medical marijuana: (1) Alzheimer’s disease. (2) Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (3) Huntington’s disease. (4) Lewy body dementia. (5) Motor neuron disease. (6) Spinal muscular atrophy. (7) Chronic pain associated with fibromyalgia. (8) Chronic pain associated with sickle cell disease. (9) Any condition for which a patient is receiving hospice care or palliative care. (10) Any condition not otherwise specified in present law or proposed law that a physician, in his medical opinion, considers debilitating to an individual patient and is qualified through his medical education and training to treat. 

HB 871 by Marino redefines “dyslexia” for the purposes of testing and providing remediation to students. Present law provides different definitions of “dyslexia” for different purposes. New law retains present law purposes but provides a uniform definition of the term as follows: (1) Present law requires the State Bd. of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt a program for testing students for dyslexia and related disorders and requires school boards to provide remediation for dyslexic students in accordance with the program; defines “dyslexia” for this purpose as a language processing disorder which may be manifested by difficulty processing expressive or receptive, oral or written language despite adequate intelligence, educational exposure, and cultural opportunity. (2) Present law requires every child in public school in grades K-3 to be screened at least once for the existence of certain impediments, including dyslexia; defines “dyslexia” for this purpose as in (1) above. (3) Present law requires, upon the request of a parent, student, or school personnel who has reason to believe that a student has a need to be tested for dyslexia, that a student be referred for testing; defines “dyslexia” for this purpose as difficulty with the alphabet, reading, reading comprehension, writing, and spelling in spite of adequate intelligence, exposure, and cultural opportunity. 

The new law redefines “dyslexia” for all present law purposes as an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader, most commonly caused by a difficulty in phonological processing, which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, and spell; provides that “phonological processing” means the appreciation of the individual sou unds of spoken and written language. SCR 62 by Milligan requests the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, through the state Department of Education, to develop and implement a traumatic injury response program to ensure that each city, parish, or other local public school in the state is prepared to respond in a traumatic injury emergency. 

The Times asked Dr. Erin Reuther, Chair of the Legislative & Governmental Affairs Committee, and President-Elect for the Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) about the session. 

“When the legislative session reconvened, LPA remained active in engaging with legislators on several bills of interest,” Dr. Reuther said. “Namely, we monitored language in HB 449 and HB 530 to ensure that psychologists are included in definition of telehealth providers and our services are covered. We worked with stakeholders and legislators on HB 871 (formerly HB 391) and HB 542 regarding dyslexia with the goal of ensuring that legal definitions and practices in the state are consistent with evidence and best practices. This included a call to action of our members, which was helping in advocating for psychology and bringing us into meaningful discussions,” she said. 

“LPA also worked to support and amend HB 317, which creates an optional designation of autism spectrum disorder on drivers licenses for individuals who decide to opt in. It also calls for training of officers in working with individuals with ASD,” Dr. Reuther said. 

“LPA plans to continue monitoring legislation in the special session to continue our goals of bringing psychological science to policy and advancing the field of psychology in Louisiana,” she explained. 

Dr. Reuther is a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist and works at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, providing patient care to children and adolescents with pediatric illness in both inpatient and outpatient health/pediatric psychology. 

In an April 30 press release, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that at President Trump’s direction, and building on its recent efforts to help the U.S. healthcare system manage the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has issued another round of regulatory waivers and rule changes to deliver expanded care to the nation’s seniors and provide flexibility to the healthcare system. These changes include continuing CMS’s efforts to further expand beneficiaries’ access to telehealth services.

CMS is taking action to ensure states and localities have the flexibilities they need to ramp up diagnostic testing and access to medical care, key precursors to ensuring a phased, safe, and gradual reopening of America, said the authors.

CMS’s goals during the pandemic are to 1) expand the healthcare workforce by removing barriers for physicians, nurses, and other clinicians to be readily hired from the local community or other states; 2) ensure that local hospitals and health systems have the capacity to handle COVID-19 patients through temporary expansion sites (also known as the CMS Hospital Without Walls initiative); 3) increase access to telehealth for Medicare patients so they can get care from their physicians and other clinicians while staying safely at home; 4) expand at-home and community-based testing to minimize transmission of COVID-19 among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries; and 5) put patients over paperwork by giving providers, healthcare facilities, Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, and states temporary relief from many reporting and audit requirements so they can focus on patient care.

According to the announcement, for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, CMS is waiving limitations on the types of clinical practitioners that can furnish Medicare telehealth services. Prior to this change, only doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certain others could deliver telehealth services. Now, other practitioners are able to provide telehealth services, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists.

Also, CMS previously announced that Medicare would pay for certain services conducted by audio-only telephone between beneficiaries and their doctors and other clinicians. Now, CMS is broadening that list to include many behavioral health and patient education services. CMS is also increasing payments for these telephone visits to match payments for similar office and outpatient visits. This would increase payments for these services from a range of about $14- $41 to about $46-$110. The payments are retroactive to March 1, 2020.

In a May 1 press release, the American Psychological Association applauded the Administration and CMS for expanding Medicare coverage for audio-only phone services during the coronavirus pandemic, including psychotherapy, health behavior assessment and intervention services, and other behavioral health services.

Previously, Medicare recipients who wanted to take advantage of psychotherapy through telehealth could do so only via videoconferencing. This was a significant limitation for people without access or capability to use those technologies

“To curb the spread of the coronavirus and help our communities heal, we cannot leave any of our neighbors behind,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, CEO of the American Psychological Association. “The American Psychological Association is grateful to our members and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle for tirelessly advocating for these needed phone services.”

“Psychologists can now use their specialty skills to improve the health of ALL the communities we serve, including older adults, people with lower income or education, individuals with disabilities and people in rural areas,” he added. “Yesterday, some of the most vulnerable people in our country did not have access to psychological care. Today, they do.”

For additional background information on the waivers and rule changes, go to: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/factsheets/additional-backgroundsweepingregulatory-changes-help-us-healthcare-systemaddress-covid-19-patient

President Trump signed an executive Order on January 31 to establish goals and priorities to end human trafficking in the U.S.

“Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery,” he said. “Throughout the United States and around the world, human trafficking tears apart communities, fuels criminal activity, and threatens the national security of the United States. It is estimated that millions of individuals are trafficked around the world each year — including into and within the United States. As the United States continues to lead the global fight against human trafficking, we must remain relentless in resolving to eradicate it in our cities, suburbs, rural communities, tribal lands, and on our transportation networks. Human trafficking in the United States takes many forms and can involve exploitation of both adults and children for labor and sex.

“Twenty-first century technology and the proliferation of the internet and mobile devices have helped facilitate the crime of child sex trafficking and other forms of child exploitation. Consequently, the number of reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of online photos and videos of children being sexually abused is at record levels.

The President wrote, “Effectively combating these crimes requires a comprehensive and coordinated response to prosecute human traffickers and individuals who sexually exploit children online, to protect and support victims of human trafficking and child exploitation, and to provide prevention education to raise awareness and help lower the incidence of human trafficking and child exploitation into, from, and within the United States,” he said.

“To this end, it shall be the policy of the executive branch to prioritize its resources to vigorously prosecute offenders, to assist victims, and to provide prevention education to combat human trafficking and online sexual exploitation of children.”

The Order aims to strengthen federal responsiveness to human trafficking, and make available, online, a list of the Federal Government’s resources to combat human trafficking, ways to identify and report instances of human trafficking, to protect and support the victims of trafficking, and to provide public outreach and training.

Improving interagency coordination for targeting traffickers, assessing threats, and sharing law enforcement intelligence is an objective, and also to enhance capabilities to locate children who are missing. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is to establish an internal working group to develop and incorporate practical strategies for state, local, and tribal governments, child welfare agencies, and faith-based and other community organizations to expand housing options for victims of human trafficking. The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of Education, shall partner with state, local, and tribal law enforcement entities to fund prevention programs.

In 2017 Gov. Edwards and the Governor’s Office Human Trafficking Prevention Commission announced a series of regional summits on human trafficking. In collaboration with various agencies the summits aimed to highlight pertinent information from key stakeholders regarding the existing services, protocols and community response to trafficking victims.

Psychologist Dr. Rafael Salcedo attended the Louisiana Human Trafficking Prevention Advisory Board meeting, held 2018. First Lady Donna Edwards and Senator Beth Mizell, gave opening remarks.

Dr. Salcedo represents psychology on the advisory group and he is also the cocreator with his wife Beth, of a the Free Indeed Home, the only licensed, therapeutic group home in the state for helping teen girls escape the physical and psychological bonds of sex-trafficking. The First Lady Ms. Edwards has toured the Home, Dr. Salcedo explained to the Times.

Dr. Rafael Salcedo is known for his advocacy and comprehensive treatment program for the young victims of human sex trafficking, and for this and other efforts, was named the 2017 Distinguished Psychologist by the Louisiana Psychological Association.

Salcedo is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with subspecialties in the area of forensic and neuropsychology, providing services for issues such as competency to stand trial, sanity at the time of crime, and other legal issues.

He consults to the court system in Orleans, Jefferson, Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes, to the Office of Community Services, and has worked with the Department of Children and Family Services for the last 25 years, conducting evaluations of children who are in need of supervision or care.

Dr. Salcedo also chairs the Louisiana Psychological Association Committee for Community Psychology & Psychology in the Public Interest.

In 2012, after becoming aware of the depth and tragedy surrounding child sex trafficking, Rafael and Beth, a licensed speech- language pathologist, founded the nonprofit, advocacy group, the Louisiana Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

Dr. Billy M. Seay, long-time member of the Louisiana psychology community, passed away December 4, 2019. He served as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Louisiana State University for many years, and then went on to become the founding Dean of the LSU Honors College.

Dr. Seay was one of the “monkey men,” the affectionate term for those who observed the behavior of primates and then explained the development, adaptation, and social structures of these close great-ape relatives.

When Dr. Seay came to LSU as a young psychologist in 1964, he brought with him the distinction of having published in the then ground-breaking studies about mother-infant separation. Seay studied with the American primatologist, Harry F. Harlow, at the University of Wisconsin, where Seay earned his doctorate.

In his work at Wisconsin and with Harlow, Seay published “Mother-Infant Separation in Monkeys,” in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, “Affectional Systems in Rhesus Monkeys,” and “Maternal Behavior of Socially Deprived Rhesus Monkeys,” and ‘Maternal Separation in Rhesus Monkeys,” in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

“Harlow provided his students with the resources of his laboratory, staff support, and considerable independence,” Seay told the Times in 2015. “When research was published he used a ‘post-Nobel’ style of authorship. Students were consistently the first author of  research reports. Exception occurred only if he had an agreement with an editor to be first author. He would not co-author dissertation publication. You were on your own.”

Seay also worked with colleague and fellow LSU professor and development psychologist, Dr. Nathan Gottried, to author The Development of Behavior: A Synthesis of Developmental and Comparative Psychology in 1978.

The Development of Behavior was ahead of its time. While debates still occur today about which influence––genetic, environmental, epigenetic, individual, etc.–– is dominant in development, Development of Behavior set out the importance of five “sets” for determining behavior from all five directions. In Development, they approached behavior from the dynamic interplay of the Phylogenetic Set, the Ontogenetic Set, the Experiential Set, the Cultural Set, and the Individual Set.

“One hopes that what is not lost is that all behavior is multiply determined,” Seay had told the Times. “There is not a single cause for any behavioral outcome,” he said.

“I think that both biological and cognitive psychology fail to recognize the importance of culture in shaping and determining behavior,” Seay said about the awareness of cultural impacts. “The cultural setting is a determining factor with respect to the environment an individual encounters. Failure to recognize cultural influences on behavior limits understanding behavior.”

Dr. Billy Seay was a devoted husband for sixty years to his college sweetheart. Billy is survived by his loving wife, Nedra Dees Seay, of Baton Rouge, his daughter Delecia Seay Carey and husband Tom, of Maurice, Louisiana, his son Franklin Whitfield Seay and wife Cheryl of Denham Springs, and many beloved grandchildren