Just about the same time that behavioral health for Medicaid finishes a full transition to integrated care, the state is looking at even more cuts, some which will have to come from public health. State officials are looking at a $370 million shortfall from what they expected, which is the same tune as every year –– deep cuts to health care and higher education are unavoidable, say experts. In a Times–Picayune article by Julia O’Donoghue, administrative officer Stafford Palmieri said, "We're going to solve the problem. Whatever it takes, we're going to solve the problem.”
Louisiana's public colleges and universities typically take on the burden of budget shortfalls, because their funding is not protected by law. There have already been cuts that have fallen on higher education, and this next push will likely track exactly the same places in the state. Higher education and health have been cut every year for almost a decade.
The new in-coming Governor will also have to contend with another $117 deficit remaining from last year’s budget cycle.
According to O’Donoghue, the state's health care budget is also facing a more than $500 million deficit. Some of this comes from lost federal funding, but there are also other issues fueling healthcare’s problems, she wrote.
At the same time, some professionals are concerned about the reimbursement rates in the new healthcare plans. Sources indicate that the Medicaid rates for psychologists for one hour of therapy is less than $80 and for psychological assessment, less than $50. Representatives form Louisiana Healthcare Connections, Beverly Hunter and Pamela Cobb, worked to help clinicians sort out the new systems, meeting with those interested at a recent conference in Baton Rouge.
At the center of the financial woes, many believe, are falling oil prices, but others say the Legislature is also too blame. A run on tax credits seems to have created lower revenues, created by legislators. Some are questioning whether the state will have the cash flow to pay it bills, suggested O’Donoghue.
Ms. Beverly Hunter (L), Network Manager, and Ms. Pamela Cobb (C), MBA, Director of Network Operations for Louisiana Healthcare Connections speak with Dr. Susan Andrews at a recent conference for psychologists in Baton Rouge. Public health has transitioned to new programs amid continuing budget cuts.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Imagine this: You’re an American woman who has for many years worked as a nurse. But, feeling that this wasn’t enough, you became a social activist, protesting poverty and nuclear weapons. After a number of years, however, you moved to Nicaragua following its bitter civil war, to train women in impoverished rural regions to become midwives. But in addition to the everyday hardships of life there, you had to move out of your house and into the village, because the Contras were going to rape or kill you. Even now, in your elder years, long after your husband left and went back to America, you’re still in Nicaragua, working for the disadvantaged. Things are better in that country now, and life is much more comfortable for most people. Which makes it feel to you oddly empty, much like life in the United States. You gave up your life in the U.S., and lost your husband and your once-strong religious faith, but you never abandoned your mission.
And is that a good thing?
This is the question Larissa MacFarquhar considers in this unorthodox book, which profiles people she calls “do-gooders,” with all the ambivalence that term implies. The title refers to a dilemma posed by the utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer: If you walk past a shallow pond and see a child drowning, would you save the child? Most people would answer “yes”, of course. Singer’s response was that since children (and adults, and animals) are dying all the time, how is it morally defensible to not respond to them? How many mosquito nets could you buy with what you’d spend for a single meal at a fancy restaurant? And is there any reason to believe that your family members deserve preferential treatment over total strangers? MacFarquhar raises the question of just how far that line of reasoning can remove one from what most people think of as being human. As she puts it, “For do-gooders, it is always wartime.” The people she profiles have done a wide variety of things in their pursuit of extreme altruism, often with unanticipated results. One couple adopted twenty-two children, including many handicapped or troubled children. All of the girls eventually got pregnant, despite the couple’s efforts at sex education and contraception. Another man donated a kidney to a complete stranger, a woman a good deal older than himself. He didn’t want to meet her because he knew she might feel compelled to respond to him in a maternal manner afterwards. Which she did, in a far more positive way than his own drug-addicted mother ever had.
MacFarquhar discusses how these “extreme altruists” have been thought of—often pejoratively–in both mental health and literary fields. These side discussions are interesting but are a bit afield from the subject profiles, some of which appeared in the New Yorker. I found these stories to be both gripping and deeply strange. A thought-provoking book, for certain.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 2.
My dad had a great saying, crafted during his fight with the Klan in the 1960s: “There’s no fanatic like one wrapped in a flag, unless it’s one wrapped in both a flag and a religious symbol.”
As a Libertarian (good government is a small one) I wonder if the investigators in this country are becoming overly primed (influenced unconsciously) by power cues. A few things I’ve heard about the investigators at the state medical board were eerily similar to some of the comments I heard about the psychology board’s investigators. The feds have turned their interest to health care providers and the first serious allegations have finally punched through to my conscious mind.
The Justice Department is investigating psychology firms, supposedly for delivering services to nursing homes, primarily it seems, because they think services weren’t deemed “medically necessary.”
Have the investigators ever been to a nursing home? People are not there for two weeks of R&R at a resort.
It’s hard to image anyone there NOT needing a comprehensive psychological evaluation and valid treatment plan derived from valid cognitive, neurological, psychological, and psychiatric conditions. Who can do that but psychologists?
We know that the elderly are put in chemical straight jackets with antipsychotic medications at rates that are a national disgrace. I’ve seen that cattle-call recently with my mother-in-law, who, bless her heart, now seems more like a character from Warm Bodies than herself.
I understand that dying is not all that easy or pleasant if you live long enough to have the drag-it-out-too-old-to-enjoy-much-of-anything- and-nobody-wants-to-talk-to-you-anyway type of golden years experience. But anyone who has been through it with a loved one understands the pressures to conform to the medical establishment’s ingrained models of care.
I went through it with my parents, and had to fight to keep them (relatively) safe from the medical/pharma industrial machine. I had the knowledge and resources––most family members don’t––and was able to hire the right behavioral help. Drugs weren’t needed after all. Magic.
However, before that, the medical people managed to put my dad–– who was legitimately depressed for good reasons––on Geodon. I got him off as quickly as I could, but it had already turned him diabetic. He had to take insulin for the rest of his life.
For our autistic youngsters we require––no, we demand––a quality psychological evaluation for treatment planning. How is it ethical that we put our seniors on drugs instead, and drugs that we know have a debilitating impact on their fragile systems?
The average nursing home resident is on 15–18 medications or more. Estimates are that 47 percent of those in nursing homes are on some type of antidepressant and there is a group about 1/3 that size on antipsychotics, prescribed off-label, according to the mental health watchdog group, CCHR International. The antipsychotics can double the risk of death and triple the risk of stroke. Antidepressants can increase falls and risks of fractures. We have an impossibly convoluted and misaligned system of self-interests going on, and the elderly might be some of the least able to navigate it for themselves.
Psychology has no power or voice in how the deals are made between government, medicine, and big pharma, and we have almost no brand recognition. Its not at all surprising that they would find psychological services to the elderly to be unnecessary – medically.
Just throw a little Geodon at ‘em and they’ll be fine.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
In what appears to be a years-long effort by the Louisiana Medical Society to make key changes in the way the state medical board manages investigations, supporters of Act 441 are pushing for the Rules changes, including a limit on preliminary investigations to one, rather than three years. The public hearing was to have taken place October 28.
The behind the scenes negotiation over time limits could become an issue, government affairs consultant and spokesperson for the Louisiana State Medical Society, Ms. Jennifer Marusak explained to the Times.
Marusak said that the changes in Act 441, some of which are major, came after years of complaints about how physicians were treated by the investigations staff at the state medical board.
“There were no limits, no structures, no definitions,” Marusak said. “A complaint of having a poor bedside manner could open up the door so that the investigators could go in and investigate everything in that physician’s office.”
Marusak also explained that there were problems because investigations would look at the complaint out of context, and not in light of the standard of care that was related to that specific complaint.
Currently, Rules are being developed to go with Act 441, which passed this spring. Marusak explained that while the original bill was changed during the legislative process, the main elements were retained and negotiated to be included in the rules.
“We might have a sticking point in the rule making because they would like the preliminary investigation to be three years, But, we mandated the changes go into the rules [instead of the law] and so this should be a one- year limit,” she said.
Marusak explained that other problems had emerged with the investigations process over the years. These included reports of retaliation and bullying. “Some were told not to bring an attorney,” she said. “And, you could have a piece of paper shoved across the desk at you and told to ‘Sign this consent order,’” she said.
“Cases would be opened and never closed.” But, Marusak said, “The board members never knew what was going on.”
At the Senate Commerce meeting on June 3, 2015, Ms. Marusak told committee members that the bill “simply put some due process steps in place, so that when a complaint is filed against the physician, there is complete transparency in the process, they know what to expect, and that they’re able to navigate the process at all.”
“Absolutely no way is the state Medical Society even attempting to hinder the investigation or prosecuting of bad doctors.”
President of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (LSBME), Dr. Mark Dawson spoke in what appeared to be opposition. He objected to the proposed changes in the law for incompetent practice and unprofessionalism, and asked that those changes be placed in the Rules, rather than coded into the statutes.
Senator Martiny cautioned Dr. Dawson that he was not to
lobby, but only to present information, represented by filling out the “white card.”
Senator Martiny paused in hearing testimony and said, “This is the problem I have with some of the boards, as it exists now. Because you’re going to end up being the judge. You have no say so as to whether or not an investigation takes place.”
“Instead, what happens is, your staff codes the investigations. Okay. And what it comes down to is that, when they present the information to you…these are people that work for you and you have to be an unbiased person to make that determination. And I think, the point I’d make to you is, I work with these people [points to other Senators] every day. If there was a credibility call between one of my staff members and you, and it’s whether I believe you or I believe them, […] Whether you want to admit it or not, its what I refer to as ‘two friends and a stranger.’ It’s the board, the board’s investigator, and a doctor.”
Martiny said that he has watched a board take the advice of their advisor and the person representing the doctor, and “any objection was over-ruled.”
Dr. Cecila Mouton, current Executive Director of the LSBME also testified. “There is no lack of due process in any of our proceedings,” she said. And, “In no case do physicians, not know what’s going on. They are encouraged to bring an attorney, and they are, again, afforded all due process.”
She said that because of the low number of incidences of discipline, “There is no reason for a physician to be frightened of the board.”
She asked that instead of a change in the law, that the changes be in the Rules, or to have a study group. She also said “The medical society is not being honest when they say they’ve been asking for this Rule change.”
In a follow-up testimony, Marusak responded that she was insulted by the suggestion that the Medical Society had in any way mislead the committee. She said that three years ago, Representative Nick Lorusso had worked with the society on this topic and the medical board had promised to write Rules to address the issue. However, no rules had been written, she said.
“Physicians fear speaking out,” Marusak said.
Executive Director of the state medical board, Dr. Cecila Mouton (seated L), and Dr. Mark Dawson, president of the medical board, speak about their concerns regarding a bill to change investigations. Senator Martiny in frame.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 3.
The Justice Department announced in an October 22 press release that they would investigate two more psychologists, this time the employees of Nursing Home Psychological Services LLC, (NHPS) and Psychological Care Services, LLC, (PCS). The firms are owned and operated by Dr. Rodney Hesson and Ms. Gertrude Parker. Allegations against Hesson and Parker were published in June. The investigations appear to include eight locations across four states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and over six or more years.
Slidell psychologist and well-known community member, Dr. Beverly Stubblefield, is to be investigated, along with another psychologist, Dr. John Teal. Dr. Teal is licensed in Mississippi. Neither are listed as principals in the firms’ business registration. They are believed to have been employees at the companies during some time in the past.
The Justice Department’s news release said that they will be investigating $25 million worth of Medicaid claims. This amount appears to be for all evaluations and other psychological care, delivered by the NHPC and PCS over the six-year period, and for all eight companies/branches.
The original June charges said that Dr. Hesson and others delivered services that were not medically necessary, and in some cases, not delivered. However, the allegations do not make clear the specific violations. They also do not make clear why claims were paid for services over six years, and then considered potentially illegal.
Psychological services, such as evaluations to understand the basis for cognitive or emotional disorders, and develop treatment plans, may be denied if considered “not medically necessary” by Medicare. The June charges seemed to suggest this may be the primary area of investigation, based on the publicized figure of $25 million in the press release.
Currently, nursing homes are under pressure by consumer groups to reduce the high use of anti- psychotic medications used to treat challenging behaviors and dementia in the elderly. Sources indicate that nursing home regulations may also be in place that require a psychological or psychiatric evaluation or re- evaluations for those on psychotropic medications.
None of the defendants were reached for comment. The charges are only allegations and the defendants are innocent until or unless proven guilty, the Justice Department’s press release noted.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 4.
The Louisiana State University doctoral clinical program coordinators are working with the American Psychological Association (APA) consultant to address issues that led to the program being given an “accredited, on probation” status from APA.
Dr. Jason Hicks, chair of the Psychology Department at Louisiana State University, noted that the department has put out a statement about the issues. In that memo, officials said that the department was asked to address three areas. These are 1) to update training objectives and competencies, as well as the manner in which these are assessed; 2) change the content of particular courses identified by the Commission; and 3) update the manner in which data are collected from current students and alumni regarding the quality of their training.
The statement said that the department is addressing the issues and that, “… as a result of our efforts, we are very confident that our clinical doctoral training program will return to its fully accredited status before the fall of 2016.”
The clinical psychology program is the only accredited clinical program in the state and has been in operation for decades.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 4.
The Alexandria VA Health Care System (AVAHCS) is funding a new pre-doctoral psychology internship program. The AVAHCS is located in Pineville, Louisiana, with four community based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) in Jennings, Lafayette, Natchitoches, and Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Dr. Leslie Drew, psychologist and Director of Training for Psychology Training Program, noted to the Times that the new internship had been approved. Drew is also the clinical psychologist and PTSD Program Coordinator.
According to the press release, the training program includes a generalist focus and fosters a general competence in trainees, over various areas of specialization. The goals of the program support the view that recovery-oriented, comprehensive, generalist skills are the foundation for competent, independent, professional services. The model of the training program is practitioner- scholar.
The new internship is not yet eligible for APA accreditation. However, graduates from this program will be eligible for VA postdoctoral fellowships and VA staff positions, noted the press release.
“It is not like any other population,” said current intern, Sarah Rieger said about the Veterans, “giving back to a population that needs it so much,” is important to her.
Intern Treva Bundy said that one of the important values of the program is, “Thoroughness of the training and the ability to practice what you
are learning.” Bundy noted that the staff is willing to address any clinical or nonclinical issues.
Dr. Drew and colleague Dr. Kelley Pears have presented numerous training workshops for others around the state, including workshops on Prolonged Exposure Therapy and PTSD topics. Dr. Pears is a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/ Substance Use Disorders psychologist at the AVAHCS.
Innovative programs such as PTSD Awareness Month, National PTSD Screening Day, and the Gathering Program are part of the comprehensive programs that interns may take part in at the VA. “The Gathering program is a recovery-oriented, social event for veterans to learn to tolerate their anxiety associated with large groups of people,” Drew previously explained to the Times.
Timberlin Chatman, also a current intern, noted that the program, “Allows me to be innovative in clinical practice and shows me what it means to be a leader in the field.”
The AVAHCS is also a teaching hospital with training programs for a number of disciplines and provides state-of-the-art technology and education. The Psychology Service at the AVAHCS has provided without compensation training to psychology students for the past 24 years. It also provided a training rotation as part of an APA accredited pre-doctoral internship consortium with Central State Hospital and Pinecrest Rehabilitation Center for several years, noted the press release.
Dr. John Fanning (L) talks with Dr. Kelley Pears and Dr. Leslie Drew at a previous convention. Drs. Pears and Drew are with the Alexandria VA Health Care System which has a new internship opening.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 5.
The online graduate school at the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) has been given a top rating by a resource for online education across the nation, GraduatePrograms.com. The ULM program, called eULM, ranked at number 17 in the nation, as recently described in a university press release. ULM’s online graduate school earned a score of 8.84 and was the only program in Louisiana that ranked in the top list. The number one ranked school, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received a score of 9.55. Dr. Eric Pani, vice president for academic affairs, told the ULM news that he was very pleased. Psychologist and current Associate Dean in the College of Business and Social Sciences, Dr. Bill McCown, was previously interim director of the graduate school at ULM.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 6.
In a news announcement last week, the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s (ULM) Gerontology program, lead by psychologist Dr. Karen Frye, and partnering with the DeSoto Parish Police Jury, Intermediate School District, and Department of Community Services, has been awarded at $690,000 grant for a Foster Grandparent (FG) program in DeSoto Parish.
The FG program, which began in 1965, is a federally funded program coordinated by the Corporation for National & Community Services, said ULM news. The program works with adults 55 years and older who are on a fixed income, to become foster grandparents, paired with one or two children, and working 15-20 hours per week in public school Grades K-12.
Dr. Karen Frye, Biedenharn Endowed Chair and ULM Professor of Gerontology, said the program is one of the “best examples of how a university can partner with community groups and make a difference.”
Dr. Frye, Rita Massey, FG Program Director, and Maidie Johnson, FG DeSoto Parish Coordinator, comprise the team for this program, said ULM news. Dr. Frye and Massey wrote the $689,883 grant. Frye has been involved in community partnering and grant writing for over 20 years.
“The biggest impact we see is academic progress,” Dr. Frye said to the ULM news. “The power is in the fact that somebody shows they care, even if it’s a stranger. The kids want to go to school because they want to work with their foster grandparents.”
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 9.
Dias and Ressler may have found that it does. Traumatic exposure to male rats affected brain anatomy, startle response, and gene expression not only in the animals, but in their offspring for two subsequent generations. Their findings provide a framework for how environmental information may be inherited transgenerationally at behavioral, neuroanatomical and epigenetic levels. The study is in Nature Neuroscience.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 10.
During 1947, approximately 50 percent of hospitalizations of Veterans into VA hospitals were for psychological issues in returning combat Veterans from World War II. A suppressed documentary by film director John Huston from 1946 estimated that as many as 20 percent of casualties in World War II were psychological.
Historically, symptoms of PTSD have been noted in written form for over 2,000 years, dating back to 490 B.C., when Greeks described behaviors of soldiers returning from war. Over the years, various terms have been used in describing PTSD-type symptoms, including nostalgia, railway spine, railway brain, spinal concussion, traumatic neurosis, functional nervous disorder, and neurasthenia; and then “Soldier’s Heart” and “Irritable Heart Syndrome” (also known as Da Costa’s Syndrome) during the American Civil War.
In the 20th century, there were another series of terms used to describe the debilitating symptoms often seen in combat Veterans returning home, including shell shock (World War I), exhaustion, battle fatigue, battle neurosis, traumatic war neurosis, and even “attitudinal psychosis” (World War II).
In 1980 “PTSD” was formalized as a diagnosis which has been attributed by many to the effects of Vietnam War Veterans who had lobbied for recognition of their psychological problems.
But in spite of the recognition of the sequelae of PTSD, numerous mental health professionals who treat individuals with PTSD feel that the formally recognized symptoms of PTSD by DSM have been too limited. As a result, the concept of “Moral Injury” was introduced.
Most attribute the introduction of the concept of moral injury to Dr. J. Shay, recipient of a 2007 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, and a psychiatrist at the VA in Boston from 1987 to 2008. Shay sees three components to moral injury: A betrayal of what is viewed as morally correct; Done by someone who holds legitimate authority (which Dr. Shay calls “leadership malpractice”); Occurring in a “high stakes” situation.
The definition would include those who are witnesses to events or the consequences of moral injury to others, such as those involved in the liberation of concentration camps, first responders (fire, police, military), etc.
Dr. Shay argues that moral injury is an actual “injury,” but not a disorder or sign of pathology, and he describes treatment as a healing process that must involve “the whole social process.”
He has described his concepts in two seminal books, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1995), and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002). In these books, Dr. Shay describes the far- reaching psychological, cultural, and spiritual effects from trauma.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 13.
Zach DeGrange was a long shot, choosing to attend University of Louisiana Lafayette and hoping to play some football. He paid his dues as a walk-on, pushed to be on special teams, and now Zach in one of the team’s key contributors.
Psychologist mom, Dr. Lucinda DeGrange is proud, worries a little, but completely enjoys Zach’s love of the game and determination to do the best he can for the Cajuns.
“I am really enjoying seeing how happy Zack is,” said Dr. Lucinda DeGrange, licensed psychologist and President Elect of the Louisiana Psychological Association. “He has worked hard for this opportunity and it’s a joy for me to see his efforts rewarded,” she said.
Head coach of the Cajuns agrees. Mark Hudspeth told the Lafayette Advertiser, that Zach was one of those who just do not give up.
“The guy always has been, to me, an overachiever-type kid that you just can’t keep off the field,” said Hudspeth to sports reporter Tim Buckely.
“Those are special guys,” Hudspeth said. “A lot of guys aren’t like that. A lot of guys give up. A lot of guys hang it up. They don’t see that they’re gonna get to play, and they’re not playing. But Zach has been a competitor since he’s been here.”
“The guy’s just a warrior,” said Hudspeth to the Advertiser. He added that DeGrange was in on about 50 snaps including special-
team duties against the Demons. “He’s really smart and, boy, he loves being a Ragin’ Cajun. … I’m a Zach DeGrange fan.”
Dr. DeGrange said, “One of the most exciting experiences for me was seeing him on TV in the game against University of Kentucky, the first game of the season, played in the Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington,” she said. “When he got his first quarterback sack the camera focused on him and I could read his face through the mask. To play on such a stage was a dream realized.”
And yes moms, she does worry a bit. “I am scared for him every time he steps out on the field, but this is his dream and he has 100 percent of my support,” she said. “I help him any way I can. I talk on the phone with him nearly every day. Before his games he will call and we’ll talk for just a few minutes about what’s coming up and how he feels.”
But, Dr. DeGrange has her hands full as a busy professional. And she and her husband have two other children, Madeleine and Daniel. Maddie is a sophomore at the University of Miami majoring in Biology and Chemistry and plans to go to medical school like her dad.
“Maddie also dances with Miami’s dance team the Huricanettes,” DeGrange said. “I just visited her in Miami and had the opportunity to see her perform at Miami’s football game. Our youngest son Daniel is a junior at Jesuit High School and
he was just induced into the National Honor Society,” she said. “I am enjoying just being a part of their lives.”
Zach seems certain to have continued success. He graduated in May with a degree in Criminal Justice and is
staying this semester to play his final year of eligibility. Search for stories and photos of Zach at the Lafayette Advertiser, he’s covered at:
Zach DeGrange, key contributor on the University of Louisiana Lafayette football team. Zach’s mom is psychologist and president elect of LPA, Dr. Lucinda DeGrange.
(Courtesy photo.)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 14.
The Louisiana Counseling Association honored key contributors at its recent convention held in September in Baton Rouge. Awards Chair for the association, Dr. John “Jodey” Edwards, NCC, LPC-S, told the Times, “I have been privileged to be in the unique position of reviewing all awards nominations for the past two years, and I have been astonished by the accomplishments of the nominees and thus the strength and potential of the LCA.”
Cindy Nardini, M.S., LPC, from Alexandria, was honored with the 2015 President’s Award. Dr. Edwards said, “The President's Award, which is unique because the person chosen to receive this award is chosen specifically by the current President of the Louisiana Counseling Association and honored specifically by the current president. This year, Tim Fields, LCA President, chose Cindy Nardini, M.S., LPC, as the recipient of the 2015 LCA President’s Award. It should also be noted that Cindy’s 2014 LCA Annual Conference presentation, ‘It Takes Time: Investing for Positive Change,’ was chosen by conference participants as one of the Best of Show awards, and she was also
honored for this at the 2015 LCA Annual Conference.”
The Distinguished Professional Service Award was presented to Dr. Reshelle C. Marino, NCC, LPC-S, and The Advocacy Award was presented to Alice Cryer- Sumler, NCC, LPC. Both these awards honor and recognize the outstanding service and initiative that members take to help the profession at the local and state level, to help increase awareness of the value of the counseling profession, explained Dr. Edwards. Dr. Marino is from Metarie and Ms. Cyer-Sumler is from Gretna.
Also honored was Chris Lauer of the University of New Orleans who was named for the Graduate Student Award.
“The Distinguished Legislative Award, which was established to honor and recognize outstanding service at the state level that reflects a significant contribution to the legislative concerns of the LCA,” said Edwards, “and to stimulate future service for the well-being of the counseling profession was presented to Senator Yvonne Dorsey- Colomb.”
Louisiana Counseling Association President Tim Fields with Cindy Nardini at recent convention. Nardini was the recipient of the President’s Award. Ms. Nardini has been key in developing a community-wide legislative forum and also in the Louisiana Coalition for Violence Prevention, among many other activities.
(Courtesy photo.)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 14.
Dr. Constance Patterson, has been named Director of Clinical Training for the School Psychology Program at the Psychology Department, Tulane University, in New Orleans. The Tulane program in School Psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association.
As Director, Patterson has the overall responsibility for the program administration and coordinating operations. Patterson explained that the job includes making decisions about admissions, curriculum, teaching assignments, planning, student performance and practicum placements and internship. She collaborates and works with all program faculty on key decisions.
“The good news,” Dr. Patterson told the Times, “is that we have a shared vision for the program and we get along well, but you can imagine we are quite a busy–and productive–team! Even so, the next two years promise to be challenging.”
Patterson has been performing the Director duties for several months now, and explained that there are considerable details involved in her new position. “I have learned it is all about the details! And there are lots of details…and then there are more details,” she said.
The department is nearing that point in the accreditation cycle when they anticipate completing their APA self study, explained Patterson. They then will undergo a program review the following year.
“It seems to be going well and I do love the work here at Tulane,” she said. “I have great colleagues to work with and talented students who are very invested in their training and growth as professionals.”
“Having the opportunity to be part of those new ‘milestone’ events in the lives of these professional- psychologists-in-training is also very rewarding,” Dr. Patterson said.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 11. Source pages: 16.
Drs. Joy Osofsky and Howard Osofsky of the Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Dr. Anthony Speier, and Beverly Lawason of the Bernard Parish Public Schools system in Chalmette, Louisiana, will present as a Keynote Panel at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies this week in New Orleans, November 5 through 7, at the New Orleans Marriott.
The 31st Annual Meeting of the Society will offer a wide range of symposium tracks including Cognitive Processes/ Interventions, Affective Processes/Intervention, Public Health, Child Trauma, Bio-Med/Genetics, Military, and Assessment and Diagnosis. The theme is Integrating Clinical and Scientific Knowledge to Advance the Field of Trauma.
Osofsky, Osofsky, Speier and Lawason will present on Wednesday, “Katrina’s Children 10 Years Later: Crisis, Trauma, Recovery, Resilience.”
The Keynote Panel will address research and interventions relating to children in Katrina. “The majority of children of all ages in parishes highly impacted by Hurricane Katrina experienced major initial and longer term traumatic stress. Most had major damage or loss of home with one or more displacements, common during the first year,” according to the conference materials.
The researchers indicate that over 1/3 of the children were separated from primary caregivers after the loss of their home, and that 25 percent had relatives or friends injured. Also, 14 percent experienced death of a relative or friend.
Researchers will look at the question: “What is it like for children and adolescents 10 years later?”
“… children and adolescents in St. Bernard Parish. St. Bernard Parish, adjacent to New Orleans, suffered major devastation, with a subsequent oil explosion resulting in a question about whether the parish could or would be allowed to rebuild.”
“The recovery, local community, state, and government responses, the reopening of school, and the role of schools in building resilience in the devastated community will be the focus of the session.”
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