Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 10. Source pages: 6.
In a 5 to 4 decision on May 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states must not use a rigid cut-off score on IQ tests when it applies to the death penalty. The court’s decision gives greater protection to the death row inmates who might be ineligible for the death sentence based on intellectual disability. Currently some states, such as Florida, may execute an individual who scored 71 on an IQ but not a person scoring 70, in capital murder cases.
Justice Kennedy wrote, “Persons facing that most severe sanction must have a fair opportunity to show that the Constitution prohibits their execution. Florida’s law contravenes our nation’s commitment to dignity and its duty to teach human decency as the mark of a civilized world.” Kennedy pointed to a review from the American Psychological Association that said IQ tests should be read as a range of numbers rather than a specific figure.
Writing for those who disagreed, Justice Samuel Alito said that this would present a change from allowing states, not professionals, to make determinations.
This is the first review of state laws having to do with mental disability in capital cases since 2002, when the court found that executing intellectually disabled individuals was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Researchers from LSU, Tulane, UL–Lafayette, UNO, and Xavier Tulane’s Dr. Cunningham Chairs Invited Symposium at Association for Psychological Science 26th Annual Convention
Tulane’s Dr. Michael Cunningham chaired one of the special Invited Symposiums at this year’s Annual Convention for the Association for Psychological Science (APS), held May 22 through 24, in San Francisco.
Cunningham, Professor of Psychology and African & African Diaspora Studies at Tulane University, helped presenters from across the country examine, “Race and Parenting in African Americans: An Examination of Gender and Context.”
“Overall,” Dr. Cunningham told the Times, “the panel did a great job of distinguishing between myths and facts on research with African Americans. In doing so, each of the papers highlighted theoretical models that had empirical examples that focused on gender and context. The papers were well received by the participants,” he said.
The symposium brought together experts from across the country to look at how parenting strategies occur in direct and indirect ways in many African American families.
“Dupree et al., presented on a Dual Axis Model of Vulnerability that assists researchers in understanding the interactions of risk and protective factors,” Cunningham explained. “The presentation had an enlighten- ing and important focus on skin color,” he said. Commenting on research by Fegley, and others, he noted how “… light skinned adolescents were just as likely to prefer their own skin color as they were to prefer another skin color.” But, “In contrast, medium complexioned adolescents were more likely than their light and dark skinned peers to prefer a skin color other than their own. Dark skinned adolescents were more likely than their light and medium complexion- ed peers to prefer their own skin color.”
“In summary,” Cunningham noted, “students are complex and they can recognize strengths and challenges in the context and link the experiences to how they develop concepts about the self, in particular their respective identity,” he said.
Other topics in the special Invited Symposium included “Multidi- mensional Perspectives on African American Fathers’ Parenting Practices: Implications for Adolescent Well-Being,” and “Overweight concerns, mental health, and family process: Implications for health promotion of Black girls.”
Spencer used the phenomen- ological variant of ecological systems theory to discuss girls’ body esteem and linkages to significant others, explained Dr. Cunningham. “She reported that overweight concerns may be important to consider in relation to depressive symptoms among overweight and non-overweight Black girls despite evidence that suggests high levels of body satisfaction among Black females.”
Two teams of researchers from the University of Louisiana Lafayette (UL Lafayette) presented their research for the APS convention.
In “Parenting Stress Potentially Explains Why Parental Depression Relates to Child Behavioral Problems,” part of the offerings in the Developmental research presentations, researchers Elizabeth Jeffery, Dr. Hung-Chu Lin, Dr. Valanne MacGyvers, and Dr. Robert McFatter, all from UL Lafayette, presented data from 58 mother-child dyads. Their results indicated that parental depression, parenting stress, and child’s behavioral problems were positively correlated with one another. “Controlling for parenting stress, however, rendered the relation between parental depression and child’s behaviors nonsignificant.”
The results suggested that parenting stress might mediate the relation between parental depression and children’s behavioral problems, the researchers said.
UL Lafayette Professor Dr. Hung-Chu Lin, told the Times, “My students and I share research interests ranging from affect organization in parenting, development of self-conscious emotions, and temporal coordination of different emotions,” she said. “Our lab is equipped with state of the art Noldus Observer XT system that allows examinations of interpersonal dynamics at the microanalytic level. For the Preschoolers’ Empathy project, for example, we recruited preschoolers and observed their empathic responses to simulated distress in other social partners,” she explained. “The Observer XT permits moment-by-moment behavioral coding using recorded images from different cameras which are synchronized in time.”
Another team of researchers from UL Lafayette presented “The Effect of Familiarity on Preschoolers’ Empathy towards Distress in Social Partners.” Phillip Richard, Dr. Hung-Chu Lin, Dr. Valanne MacGyvers, Janna Bourque, and Ashley Schaff, presented research that examined preschoolers’ responses to distress in their parents, a stranger, and a crying infant, a life-like doll. They found that other-oriented behaviors indicating empathy towards the parent were negatively correlated with self- comforting behaviors towards the stranger and infant. Cognitive empathy and social inhibition predicted girls’ self- oriented behaviors in response to infant crying, noted the researchers.
“Something that is very special about our lab,” Dr. Hung–Chu Lin said, “is that it is not only comprised of psychology majors. We also have some students coming from biology and nursing departments,”
University of New Orleans’ researcher Farrah Golmaryami presented in another APS Symposium, “Innovations in Research in Adolescent Psychopathy,” on May 23. Co- authors in this work included Dr. Paul Frick, Laura Thornton, and Annie Crapanzano, all from the University of New Orleans.
Golmaryami looked at the interaction between bullying and victimization for the prediction of callous- unemotional (CU) traits in 284 students in the 4th through 7th grades. Results indicated stronger associations between bullying and CU traits for those lower on victimization, suggesting that CU traits may denote a particularly cruel bully typology.
Developmental psychologist, Dr. Patricia Sirois, from the Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, along with ten researchers from across the country, presented “Learning and Memory in Youth with Perinatal HIV Exposure and/or Infection.” Youth with perinatally acquired HIV show poorer performance in verbal learning and delayed recall compared to perinatally HIV- exposed but uninfected youth. Differences are largely accounted for by caregiver characteristics. However, associations with measures of disease severity suggest ongoing subtle effects of HIV with the potential for long- term impact, noted the researchers.
Louisiana State University’s Catherine Lemieux, joined with researchers to present “Character strengths and deep connections: Modeling resilience for disaster volunteers.” Their study examined a conceptual model with two pathways, one for altruism and one for perceived spiritual supports, leading to resilience among Hurricane Katrina-Rita volunteers. They noted these are indicators of character strengths Kindness and Spirituality. The results showed that the two indicators may have served as a protective mechanism for the whole sample despite volunteers’ different racial-cultural backgrounds. The researchers used structural equation modeling with a sample of 554 volunteers from those enrolled in metal health profession studies at five universities in the disaster-affected areas.
Doctoral student David Doyle from Tulane, in collaboration with other researchers, presented “Black Swans: The Impact of Dance Style on Objectification and Eating Disorders.” The researchers reported evidence for the general model of objectification theory and body image disturbance among male and female professional dancers in elite dance companies. Training and performing in classical styles (ballet vs. modern dance) correlated with objectifying cues and these cues correlated with body shame and eating disordered behaviors.
Amy Luthanen from Xavier University, joined with researchers from around the country to present, “The Mediating Effect of Self- Awareness on Supervisor Burnout and Workgroup Climate,” in the Industrial- Organizational subject area. The researchers found that supervisors with high self-awareness were more able to self- regulate and more likely to reorganize resources, better coping with burnout and alleviating negative effects on workgroup climate.
Dr. Mike Cunningham (L) and Dr. George Hebert at School Psychology Assn. Dr. Cunningham was the Chair of a special Invited Symposium at the recent APS Convention.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 10. Source pages: 6.
The new Behavior Analyst board has processed 82 applications so far, explained the board’s Executive Director Kelly Parker recently. Through May this year, the board has received 82 applications for the Behavior Analyst, 7 applications for Assistant BAs, and 340 applications for line technicians.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Votes for a five-year position on the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists were finally counted on Saturday, April 26, in a snake-bit election that has included three rounds of ballots having to be sent to state psychologists, and a fourth round still a possibility.
Dr. Constance Patterson captured 116 votes, 77 were cast for Dr. Joe Comaty, and Dr. Robin Chapman received 20 votes. Patterson’s and Comaty’s names will be sent to Governor Jindal’s Office for him to name his appointee. Ballots were counted in an open meeting at Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, beginning at 8 a.m. Conducting the vote counting was Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) President Dr. John Fanning, assisted by Council members Dr. Paula Zeanah, Dr. Carolyn Weyand, and Dr. Lucina DeGrange who videotaped the proceedings. Attending for the Louisiana Board of Examiners of Psychologists was Dr. Phil Griffin. Public members attending were candidate Dr. Joe Comaty, Dr. Claire Advokat, and Julie Nelson from the Times.
The hotly-contested election was fraught with both quality problems and concerns by some of ballot and election tampering, together making it one of the strangest elections in memory according to some sources.
On December 31, 2013, candidate Joe Comaty emailed Executive Director Kelly Parker voicing his concerns about the security of the ballots and his views about conflicts of interests with some in LPA who were conducting the election. He also wrote Boards and Commissions Assistant Director Holly Robinson, listing 5 issues, including his view that one of the other candidates had a direct conflict of interest. (See related story, page 8.)
Quality problems also plagued the election process, apparently fueling tensions and fears about vote tampering.
Ballots are typically sent on colored paper, but the LPA Executive Director and his Texas firm printed the first round of ballots on plain white paper. During the second mailing, a cover letter that explained that this was a second ballot, was left out of some of the packets. A request by LPA to the psychology board to send a reminder by email, was rejected, and so a third ballot had to be sent.
However, things still did not go smoothly. Several sources noted that David White opened a number of the ballots before the Saturday vote counting procedure, when the plan was to leave them all sealed until Saturday. One source told the Times that White reported that he had also somehow misplaced two of the ballots.
On the Friday afternoon before the Saturday public vote count was to take place, LSBEP Executive Director Kelly Parker emailed LPA President John Fanning a letter from Dr. Marc Zimmermann, Vice Chair of the LSBEP, and medical psychologist, concerning the integrity of the election.
“I am writing to inform you that the Board has concerns about the integrity of the election process in lieu of the recent reports involving the ballots for the election,” said Zimmermann. “Specifically, prior to the official count the ballots have been opened which raises the concern of the security of the entire election process.”
The Times talked with Dr. Zimmermann who said, “We have concerns about the whole election process.” He explained that the board’s decision to send the letter had been made sometime during the day, while the board held its monthly meeting.
Dr. Kim VanGeffen, who attended the board’s meeting said, “I was rather surprised to see the letter from Marc given that there was no indication at the Public Hour that LSBEP did not expect the vote count to take place or that they had any concerns,” VanGeffen noted to the Times. “In fact, there was very little mention of the vote count and only joking about the latest drama,” she said.
“I thought we [the LSBEP] talked about it in the open meeting,” Zimmermann said, “maybe in a joking way,” but he could not recall exactly when during the day that the decision was made to send the letter or if it was discussed in executive session.
It is not clear how serious this last matter may become. The Times spoke with retired LPA Executive Director, Connie Stigall, who said that it was “… customary for executive directors to open association mail,” not knowing until it is open which are ballots and which are other types of correspondence. And she said, much of elections have been primarily on the honor system.
The Times asked Dr. Joe Comaty if he intended to challenge the election, and no reply was returned.
The current election is part of an on-going struggle over control of the psychology board, with the powerful political group, Louisiana Academy of Medical Psychologists-Political Action Committee, who has been effective in helping medical psychologists be appointed to the board. Those who oppose Act 251, have pushed for regular psychologists to serve, but so far have been unsuccessful in obtaining a majority.
Currently the LSBEP includes three medical psychologists serving of five positions. Medical psychologists are not required to hold a state psychology license in order to practice psychology and make up only about 5 percent of those holding a license in psychology. However, medical psychologists hold 60 percent of the board’s positions.
LPA will officially support Patterson’s appointment, based on a policy put into place by the association to support the person who has received the most votes by their peers, regardless of affiliation.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 9.
The efforts to exempt psychologists and others practicing applied behavior analysis from having to obtain an additional license under the new Louisiana Behavior Analyst Board (LBAB) appear to be having some problems, several sources have reported to the Times.
The issue stems from the licensing of assistants and line technicians, which are often important individuals in the treatment teams for comprehensive services in applied behavior analysis (ABA).
The law, Act 351, passed in the 2013 legislative session, after long negotiations in a working group, exempts psychologists. Under §3715, “Persons and practices not affected,” the law includes: “(9) An individual licensed to practice psychology within the state, so long as the applied behavior analysis services provided by the licensed psychologist are within the licensed psychologist's education, training and expertise. This includes individuals acting under the extended authority and direction of licensed psychologists. Licensed psychologists and those acting under their extended authority are prohibited from representing themselves as behavior analysts, licensed behavior analysts, assistant behavior analysts, or state certified assistant behavior analysts without being duly licensed or state certified.”
However, the new law also defines the assistant behavior analyst and the line technician to be “under the supervision of a licensed behavior analyst.
Issues between the professions were supposed to have been worked out in the painful and pains-taking efforts of the Behavioral Analysts Licensure and Regulation Study Commis- sion, which worked on these issues throughout 2012 and in 2013.
The Behavior Analyst license is $400 for application and $400 for annual renewal.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Chair of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Psychology Department and founder of the cognitive psychology program, Dr. Robert Mathews, will retire at the end of this month. After receiving his doctorate in psychology from Yale University in 1976, he came to Baton Rouge as a young Assistant Professor and made his home for nearly 40 years, with contributions in academics, research, and university administration.
Mathews has led the department through one of the toughest financial periods in the last decades, and yet has been able to build a dynamic group of scientists and educators, and a department that has grown in national prestige and focus.
“As chair, I am pleased that I have been able to retain our great faculty and hire more during the worst of financial times at LSU,” he told the Times last week.
“… I worked to get the department in tune with trends in the field by moving into more physiological measures and neuroscience in their research. We hired two researchers, Melissa Beck and Megan Papesh who use physiological measures in their research. We also hired a neuro-clinical psychologist, Matthew Calamia, to replace the expertise we lost with Drew Gouvier's retirement.”
During Mathews’ tenure as chair the number of faculty members obtaining grants to support their research greatly increased, he explained, a critical effort in austere times.
But maintaining this course has not always been easy. Mathews explained the challenges of holding together a quality psychology program during financially rough periods. “We have too few faculty members for our 600 plus undergraduate student majors and our PhD programs,” he said. “We have done our best to make our unavoidable large classes engaging and offer personal attention to our students. However, we should be a faculty of about 35, instead of 21.” He also noted the last of resources for graduate students.
But Mathews’ career has also been full of rewarding experiences. Mathews views one his greatest accomplishments to be the founding of the cognitive PhD program in 1986 and making it a success.
“I have had a hand in hiring all of our outstanding faculty in the cognitive area,” Mathews told the Times, “first as area head and later as chair. This area is thriving and nationally prominent,” he said, “especially in learning, attention, memory and perception research.”
He sees a second most important contribution to be his founding of the Office of Applied Cognition, called the OAC, with co-director, Dr. Sean Lane.
“This office is dedicated to applying cognitive science to solve real world problems,” said Mathews. “The work has included research on teaching highway workers basic math through an innovative online training program, helping math teachers improve their expertise by using deliberate practice, and studying the impact of rolling out new technology in a hospital.”
Dr. Mathews plans on continuing to serve as co-director of the OAC in retirement, and is looking forward to “… more projects that benefit both science and the community,” he said.
Mathews has taught both graduate students and undergraduates, he has been awarded numerous research grants, including several from the Army Research Institute for work in implicit and explicit learning, from the National Science Foundation for physicians’ adoption of technology, and from the Louisiana Board of Regents for cognitive science.
He has numerous publications including a chapter currently in press, titled, “Implicit and explicit processes in the development of mental skills: A theoretical interpretation with some practical implications for science instruction,” to be part of the edited volume, To think and act like a scientist: The roles of inquiry, research and technology. Mathews has published a long list of scholarly contributions, such as, “The interaction of implicit learning, explicit hypothesis testing learning, and implicit-to-explicit knowledge extraction,” in Neural Networks.
So, when the Times asked him, “What has been most rewarding?” his answer was not surprising. “My research on implicit learning over practically my whole career has been very rewarding. The role of non- conscious cognition in everyday thinking is huge and previously ignored.” He is also excited by his work on cognitive bias in decision-making. “We have found a way to create a confirmation bias––false belief–– in the lab and are studying the cognitive mechanisms that maintain the belief––for example, attending more to confirming evidence––to develop methods to help eliminate bias in real world situations.”
“We do have two minds,” Mathews’ said to the Times in a previous interview, referring to two mental systems what operate by different rules. “Not only does implicit learning exist,” he said, “but it may be the primary way we learn.”
One important track of his investigations, funded by the Army Research Institute, has been medical decision errors. An estimated 44,000 people die each year in hospitals, from preventable errors in decision-making of medical professionals. “The good news,” Mathews said, “is that they [medical professionals] often choose effective treatments. The bad news is that they are generally unaware of bad side effects and often unconsciously merge side effects with their judgments about the efficacy of treatments on the main output variable,” he explained.
“They also too often prescribe ineffective treatments and believe individual differences exist when there are none,” he said. “We have only scratched the surface in this research.”
Dr. Mathews contributions to the both the university and the department have been significant. He has served as the Chairman of the Institutional Review Board for LSU for the last 14 years. And, he has been the Human Subjects Administrator for the last 11 years. In this role, Mathews has been responsible for the safety of all human subjects at LSU, including the critical research after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
He developed the on-line course to teach psychology majors about careers in psychology, solving a decades long problem for undergraduates who left universities without a clear job path or plan. Mathews worked with Dr. Paul Atchley from the University of Kansas, LSU colleagues Drs. Sean Lane, Emily Elliott, and his graduate student Jon Tall to develop the course which is now required for all psychology majors.
“It teaches them about the wide variety of career paths for psychology majors and helps them choose their courses,” said Mathews. “It also helps them find opportunities to enhance their competitiveness both within and outside the department,” he said.
What has Dr. Mathews enjoyed the most? “I have enjoyed most as chair was working with so many excellent, dedicated members of my administrative team. Most notably, Sean Lane, Emily Elliott, and Jason Hicks contributed every day to making our department a success. In addition, Mike Hawkins, Drew Gouvier, and Tom Davis have made great contributions. All of our faculty members have contributed much during these 6 years as chair.”
The low point? “I regret the demise of our I/O [Industrial-Organizational] PhD program in recent years,” he said. “We simply did not have the resources to meet their growth needs, so they left the department. There is talk at the college level of rekindling this program. This would be wonderful but would require a great financial commitment by the college.”
What are his plans now? Dr. Mathews looks forward to continuing some of his research with a small number of students, and “… no administrative or teaching responsibilities, it is exciting to just focus on doing valuable research.”
“In retirement I will also resume an old hobby—throwing pots, and begin a new one- -growing orchids,” he said.
Since daughter Eva and her family will be moving back to the area from Boston this summer, he added, “Most importantly, I will get to help raise my two-year old grandchild.”
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 9.
In a press release, March 30, 2013, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals announced that Medicaid will cover Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) services for persons who meet the guidelines published in the February 2014 Emergency Rule (Louisiana Register, Volume 40, Number 2).
The announcement noted that to access these services a person should select a Medicaid enrolled ABA provider who will submit the request for prior authorization to Molina Medicaid Solutions for approval.
For assistance locating these providers, interested person can call the Specialty Care Resource Line at 1- 877-455-9955 or DHH directly at 1-844-423-4762.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 2.
A rumor’s going around. I think it might have started with David White, the LPA Executive Director, who can be totally excused for not knowing the difference between a dual role and a conflict of interest. But then the rumor gained steam, latching on to other motivations, until finally, it was stated with conviction in a letter from Joe Comaty to the Assistant Director of Boards and Commissions, Ms. Robinson.
“One of the candidates currently running has a direct conflict of interest,” Comaty wrote.
Cognitive psychology tells us that an idea catches on because it’s simple, emotional, and because of our automatic, lazy think brain. Shame, shame. Conni Patterson had a dual role, not a conflict of interest, but apparently it is becoming the complaint du jour.
I checked with her about it and turns out she had a very small job with the board to help out on a few investigations. She resigned, and expects any of the very few cases she worked on to be closed very soon, if not now.
But that is not the point. People should check out their “arrows.” Patterson’s primary goal in aiding the board would be the same goal if she were sitting on the board, to help figure out the truth.
“A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest,” write Bernard Lo and Marilyn Field, and the Committee on Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice, part of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies.
In our profession, primary interests might include scientific truth, client welfare, or investigation validity. Secondary interests, can include financial goals, but also and more diabolically, psychological goals such as status, power, or even protection of group identity.
Patterson had a dual role, not a conflict of interest, and a simple analysis shows us we would not expect a conflict of goals in this situation. (By the way, most board members have dual roles.)
In his letter to Boards and Commissions, Dr. Comaty said that Patterson would have to recuse herself and this would impair the board’s performance.
Recuse onself? Does he mean like recusing oneself after searching one’s conscience and finding that a personal goal conflicts with a primary goal?
Like in 2009 when the psychology board, made up of LAMP-Political Action Committee members, made a decision to sit by and do nothing while their own legislation was being passed, legislation that diluted the psychology practice act? Like that? The way no one recused themselves?
Or in 2012, when Comaty was approached by representatives of medicine and medical psychology to change his decision, so that psychology interns could be supervised by professionals without a state psychology license? That way? The way he didn’t recuse himself?
Or, in 2012 when LPA sent Phil Griffin to ask the psychology board if they’d discuss ways to bring psychology back from the medical board, and they said they were happy with things the way they were. The way the medical psychologists (MPs) on the board didn’t recuse themselves. That way?
Or how the board decided that in the case of MPs, it was okay that continuing education was delivered by a Political Action Committee, just don’t do it again. That way?
There is no more clear evidence that MPs have different goals in regard to independent clinical psychologists, than the current collaboration clause for counselors (and soon to be marriage and family therapists) where MPs will be collaborating with counselors for clients who have a serious mental illness, but clinical psychologists will not.
In December 2010, pushed by then Executive Director Jaime Monic, the board asked the Attorney General to answer a question, “Is there a conflict of interest when a psychologist is a member of the Psychology Board and is simultaneously licensed as a medical psychologist with Medical Examiners Board?”
The Attorney General’s office said all they could rule on was dual-office holding. But then they said the propriety of a public board member’s conduct is governed by Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics, and gave them the address and the phone number and wrote, “We further recommend that you seek an advisory opinion from the State Board of Ethics on this issue.”
But no one ever did. Go figure.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 9.
The Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists held a closed meeting with the Board Advisory Counsel on April 7. The agenda indicated that the group was to meet from 9:30 am to 11 am. The exception to open meetings law was listed as LSA-R.S. 42:6.1, but no specific exemptions were listed. Main exemptions allowed include discussions of character, professional competence, mental health of a person; collective bargaining strategies or prospective litigation; security plans, investigative proceedings; or extraordinary emergencies such as natural disasters or epidemics. There does not appear to have been a description in the minutes for this closed meeting.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 3.
Senator Martiny’s bill to allow the state psychology board to issue a provisional license to those who are being supervised for a psychology licensure, will be heard on the House Floor May 7.
The measure has moved quickly from the Senate where it passed with a vote of 36 to 0. It was heard in the House committee on April 23 and reported favorably, 12 to 0. It is scheduled for the House floor and expected to pass easily.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 9.
Federal officials at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have declined to qualify the plans for privatization of six state-owned hospitals that serve the uninsured and poor. The rejections involve the LSU-run hospitals in New Orleans, Lafayette, Houma, Lake Charles, Shreveport and Monroe. "To maintain the fiscal integrity of the Medicaid program, CMS is unable to approve the state plan amendment request made by Louisiana," the federal agency said in a statement as reported by the AP.
In a statement from DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert, she said, "CMS noted that they support the mission of the public-private partnerships and the effort to create equality in the delivery of health care to the residents of Louisiana. This denial by CMS is in stark contrast to earlier approval of four SPAs for the public-private partnership with Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) in Baton Rouge. The SPAs for OLOL were approved in July of last year and included advance lease payments for four clinics to be operated by the private partner.”
Both Governor Jinday and Kliebert said they will appeal the decision.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 3.
Representative Walt Leger’s bill to change the terms used to refer to individuals with disabilities has passed both the House and Senate and is headed back to the House. The April 30 vote on the Senate floor was 36 to 0 after minor amendments. It will return for final approval in the House. The law will call for changes in the names of agencies, institutions, private organizations, and other entities. The measure notes the linguistic paradigm known as "person first language", which emphasizes a person's humanity over any condition or characteristic the person may have, to be employed wherever possible to refer to persons with disabilities and other persons with exceptionalities.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 10.
Tulane Psychology is introducing a new program in Behavioral Health this spring. The announcement noted that the program was developed to provide students with training needed for basics of Behavioral Health. A second goal is to provide a more in-depth understanding of the major areas of concentration at a graduate level to those who are new to psychology.
The Behavioral Health 4+1 has 2 tracks, one Applied and one General. The applied track includes study in science about the interplay between psychology, health, and illness, prevention, and health care delivery and system components, among others. The General track provides the greater number of domains of knowledge in psychology beyond behavioral health.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 4.
An effort to add Licensed Professional Counselors to the list of professionals who serve on the clinical team that is sometimes appointed to work in lieu of a sanity commission, failed to pass in a 4 yea, 5 nay vote, on April 23. Testimony was heard in the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.
Speaking in favor of the bill was Dr. Jacqueline Mims, who provided information and outlined for the legislators some of the differences between the mental health professions. She said, “None of us received specific training in forensic counseling or psychology,” and explained her own experience of over 19 years with the Baton Rouge City Court. She noted her doctorate in counseling psychology and also a doctorate in special education. She is currently enrolled in forensic psychology she explained. Dr. Mems currently serves on the Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners.
Dr. John Fanning, president of Louisiana Psychological Association, testified in opposition to the measure, saying that the sanity commission issues would likely involve persons with major mental illness, and this would fall outside of the scope for counselors’ in their current law.
Filing cards for information were Executive Director Kelly Parker and Deborah Harkins, Esquire, for the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, and in opposition were a representative of the Louisiana Defense Lawyers, the Louisiana Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Baton Rouge District Attorney.
The close 4 – 5 vote came with 5 members absent due to a traffic accident on I-10 at that same time.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 10.
The National Institute of Mental Health has granted Tulane University a five-year, $3.13 million grant to study the causes of Major Depressive Disorder, said a Tulane announcement last fall.
Dr. Jinying Zhao, associate professor of epidemiology at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and principal investigator. According to the announcement, the researchers will attempt to identify alterations of genetic makeup, called “epigenetic” changes, that may cause the disorder. “Epigenetic changes are related to many psychosocial, behavioral and/or environmental factors,” says Zhao in the announcement. The researchers will compare the DNA of twin pairs only one of which has Major Depressive Disorder.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.