Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 3. Source pages: 7.
Continuing Education Rule Noticed for Behavior Analyst
The Behavior Analyst Board published a proposed Rule in the February Louisiana Register to establish requirements for licensed behavior analysts and state certified assistant behavior analyst to complete continuing education hours within the “biennial reporting periods beginning in December 2016.”
For the reporting periods that begins December 2016 and afterward, the Rule would require 32 credits of continuing professional development in the biennial reporting period for licensed behavior analysts. Twenty credits are required for the state certified assistant behavior analysts.
Four of the required credits of continuing professional development must be in the area of ethics.
Licensees can accumulate continuing professional development credits in six categories including academic activities, traditional training, and publication.
Comments are due by 12 p.m. on March 23, 2015.
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. 3. Source pages: 7.
Rule for Emeritus Psychologists’ CEUs Proposed
After months of confusion following an October 2013 rule change that deleted the continuing education waiver for Emeritus Psychologists, the psychology board published a notice in the February Louisiana Register.
The proposed Rule notes, “This modification provides for an exemption for emeritus licenses until 2015 and 2016. Emeritus licensees who hold an odd license will begin accruing continuing education hours on July 1, 2015 and will report by June 30, 2017.
“Emeritus licensees who hold an even license will begin accruing continuing education hours on July 1, 2016 and will report by June 30, 2018.”
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. 3. Source pages: 8.
Psychologist Provisional License Rule Proposed
The psychology board published its proposed Rule for the new law on provisional licenses for psychologists, following Act 137 of the 2014 legislature that established the new credential for doctoral level psychology interns in their second year of supervision. The proposed Rule will modify the occupational and professional standards, the Louisiana Administrative Code (LAC) for psychologists.
Those doctoral level trainees who have completed a minimum of one year of experience practicing psychology under the supervision of a licensed psychologist are eligible to apply for the provisional license, according to Act 137. The proposed Rule covers requirements, application, supervision, and disciplinary actions. Also covered are ethical standards and other topics.
The proposed Rule includes those candidates who have completed their first year of supervision or who has “completed an approved predoctoral internship as defined in the rules and regulations of the board and required as part of the doctoral degree in psychology as defined by the board and all other experience being post-doctoral; …”
The Rule includes medical psychologists as supervisors of the second year interns applying for the provisional license, following Act 137 as amended by the medical psychologist lobby in 2014. But the Rule also appears to modify supervision standards to include medical psychologists overall. (See related article this issue.)
Fee for application is set $150 and the oral exam fee is $250.
Written comments should go Kelly Parker, Executive Director, 8706 Jefferson Highway, Suite B, Baton Rouge, LA 70809. All comments must be submitted by 12 p.m. on March 23, 2015, this according to the announcement.
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. 3. Source pages: 2.
A Time Machine Would Help by J. Nelson
“No doctors,” rasped the character Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. The movie reminds us that Hawking, now age 72, was diagnosed at 21 with ALS and given only two years to live. There is no biological treatment for ALS so medical experts can’t explain it. Some are willing to claim the null and say it’s not due to his psychology (mind- body), demonstrating that they haven’t read A Brief History of Time or an introductory statistics text.
Hawking may have been spared iatrogenic problems but there is ample evidence that they abound for the rest of us. A recent study showing that heart patients died significantly less when their cardiologists were off at conventions adds to the picture. There’s even a slogan, “First, do no harm.” When you have a slogan, you know you have a real problem.
Robert Whitakers’ presentation last month at the Louisiana Marriage & Family Therapists Association convention brings the iatrogenic theme into focus when it comes to psychiatric drugs. If Whitaker is right, and he makes a compelling case, then not only antidepressants, but anti- psychotics, and stimulants might well be doing more harm than good.
It is of some comfort that Whitaker, an investigative journalist, leans on the work of psychologists, including Irving Kirsch who was hosted by the Louisiana Psychological Association and Tulane in 2013. Whitaker also leans on research by Martin Harrow, a psychologist who has been doing longitudinal research with schizophrenics for decades. Once at Yale, Harrow is also a chess master. So who are you going to believe––Big Pharma or someone who tied Bobby Fischer twice?
Kirsch’s and Whitaker’s mass market books are beginning to move the beliefs of the large social system–no easy feat. It took the medical profession 25 years to stop x-raying pregnant women after the evidence showed that it harmed the baby.
Last year researchers in a JAMA article took up Kirsch’s ideas and spurred debate picked up in news outlets such as The New Yorker, Newsweek, and New York Times. Even Dr. Oz got into it with his “Truth about Antidepressants,” episode, demonstrating the problem by pouring blue liquid into a plexiglass head with holes drilled in it so the blue stuff splashed out everywhere.
Whitaker casts serious doubt on these drugs, but his perspective also shows deficiencies in the problem-solving function of the healthcare social system. Science works by successive approximations to a goal of pure truth that we can never reach. But are we to expect consumers to wait 30 years for medical science to figure things out and be harmed in the meantime?
Do we opt for a symptom treatment, with volume sales potential, and stop searching for real causes of disease? Some recent findings in nutritional mental health tell us we’re better off popping a probiotic than a Prozac. If Whitaker is right about psychiatric drugs, what are we to think about the validity behind the rest of the almost $1 trillion drug market, like those for treating cancer and immune disorders?
Psychologist Philip Tetlock concludes in his book on human judgment that we don’t have to fully accept George Bernard Shaw’s definition of professions––conspiracies to defraud the public––in order for us to recognize our problems.
“… there is a strong desire among mass-public consumers to believe that they live in a predictable world and an equally strong desire among more elite consumers in the media, business, and government to appear to be doing the right thing by ritualistically consulting the usual suspects from widely recognized interest groups,” Tetlock writes.
Some feel the “…tight symbiotic embrace between self-confident suppliers of dubious products and their cling-on customers,” is inevitable, Tetlock says. But he believes that with the analytical tools we have in science, and journalism, and with thoughtful application, we can build self-correcting epistemic systems.
Or, we could get a time machine.
In the 1960 classic movie, Time Machine, the underworld trolls, the Morlocks, fatten up and feed off the Eloi, the above ground, complacent, and woefully out-of-touch Agreeables. It isn’t until Rod Taylor comes sailing in from the long ago past that the Eloi wake up to the fact that there’s a big problem.
We can’t always count on someone to put the self-interest of others above his or her own interests. It is not how we are wired. We can’t even always depend on ourselves.
But we can count on an open, self-correcting system to help discover the truth, or some approximation of it, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’re wired for self-interest but we’re also wired to do the right thing.
Photos are from H.G. Wells’ 1960 movie, The Time Machine production and Yvette Mimieux’s photo archives.
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. 3. Source pages: 8.
ASPPB Seeks Comments for New Guidelines on Supervising Psychologists
The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) posted a draft set of Supervision Guidelines for Education and Training leading to Licensure as a Health Service Provider. They are seeking public comments until March 31 and can be submitted on ASPPB’s website.
The present Guidelines were revised in 2003. “Since that time much as been written about the process, methods and techniques of supervision thus leading us to once again review and revise the ASPPB Supervision Guidelines,” noted the authors.
The revision is for those psychologists in health service and other guidelines will be developed for general applied psychologists, and for supervision outside of the traditional realm, said the author.
The draft covers topics of ethics, supervisor competencies, supervision at different levels of training, supervision contracts, and specialty areas of supervision. The authors note that competence in supervision should include knowledge and skills, and also supervised experience, for providing supervision.
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. 2. Source pages: 2.
The psychology board wants to expand its control from regulating psychologists’ practice of psychology, to regulating their free speech and “professionalism.” They need this because someone apparently cursed at the Executive Director, and because “You wouldn’t believe the things we are seeing,” and because a psychologist spouting off could somehow hurt the public by hurting the profession.
This rather confusing logic was part of what board members put forth at the long-range meeting last November for their desire to make yet another change in the licensing law. (The board members’ duties don’t include making new laws, but that seems to make little difference to anyone.)
So now they want to expand their control to govern free speech. There are three issues here: 1) faulty group process; 2) a possible power struggle; and 3) the strange notion of psychologists restricting individual expression.
First, whether the board is deciding about free speech or what type of sandwich to order, they seem unaware of their group process. In this case, they have fallen into a confirmation bias– looking for reasons to do what they already want to do.
They’ve exhibited the human frailty of jumping to a conclusion. The inductive reasoning seems to be: some psychologists are rude and inappropriate; the board regulates psychologists; therefore the board should regulate rude and inappropriate behavior of psychologists. Even if they’d identified the right problem––they haven’t––it’s the wrong solution. It is the “I have a hammer so this must be a nail,” decision error. One reader said, “Someone cussed out the Executive Director? Why not just send her to a customer service workshop?”
The board also seems to be neglecting their own base rate. The board voted five times over the last four years for a discipline action. This is 1.25 per year for about 680 psychologists. The base rate is .0018 for discipline. The more likely problem might be the validity of those five cases, that they could be false positives. Or, we could worry about wasting taxpayers’ money trying harder to control something that hardly ever happens. The board might even say, “Yes, but you see how well it all works to control unruly psychologists.” And it works to keep all the elephants away too.
Decisions like this have an invisible cost on human productivity that never figures in for those coming up with regulations. This is the error Daniel Kahneman calls WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is) or Henry Hazlitt calls the only lesson for economics––overlooking the impact of a policy on everybody else.
In this case, “everybody else” is the 678.75 psychologists who don’t have a disciplinary problem that year. They will adjust by taking (even) fewer risks, the heart of innovation. Fear of a board complaint can and does cause more caution, timidity, and inhibition. They’ll do more record keeping, covering of behind, and produce less innovation, or public statements, or less working in high conflict custody cases, or whatever.
If we put all of this on a scale, from negative 10 to positive 10, with our base rate we can think about the impact. Let’s say the problem case is a negative 10 and the overly cautious psychologist adjusts downward by 2, in “productivity” units. Then, while more regulation might “save” 50 productivity points, it will “cost” the community over 6,000 points by its impact on everybody else.
I wish the board would address its own group process. Are they using psychology to do their work? Are they thinking like psychologists?
The second problem? I’m not saying so, but some have said to me (and imagined that I think it) that the board is “doubling- down” on free speech because of the Psychology Times. If true, this is normal and to be expected. Conflict between town hall and the community newspaper is part of the age-old, time- honored struggle for freedom in democratic societies. But, I would sure hate for everyone to be regulated more just because the board is fed up with the Times.
Finally, it seems absurd for the board to take up arms against freedom of expression. Good grief––this is the psychology board!
The board has declared no media interviews, they won’t release attorney’s memos that they use for rationale, their minutes are cryptic. Now they’ve decided they need to control psychologists’ personal behavior and free speech.
Psychology and psychologists embrace free expression and speech, we don’t restrict it. In Plato’s terms, psychology might be one of the “fair and immortal children of the mind,” while not always reaching, but always striving for, the truth, in all its convoluted and challenging forms.
It’s not easy, but it is noble, to give structure and substance to the thoughts of the individual, to provide the emotional space for the views of a spouse or child, to validate experiences of an employee, or expose scientific facts. Psychologists discover the general truths of the human experience and send them out like messages in bottles.
We don’t restrict free speech––we promote it and protect it.
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. 2. Source pages: 3.
The Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists announced the formation of a task force that is to create a baseline framework for a Code of Professionalism, according to a memo sent by the board on December 22.
Sources say the first task force meeting will be on March 6, at the Baton Rouge office of the board.
The psychology board has invited representatives from the Louisiana Psychological Association, the Louisiana Academy of Medical Psychology, and the Louisiana Association of School Psychologists, to participate in the task force. Dr. Marc Zimmermann is to head up the group, according to several sources.
Previous announcements noted that the board is considering adopting a code, law, or rule regarding “professionalism.” The announcement noted that the board wants to look at areas of profane communication by psychologists directed at a client, another health care professional, a member of the public, or another profane communication directed at the Board members, or its staff, according to their announcement.
Currently the psychology law covers psychologists’ practice of psychology, and some general areas of misconduct and unethical behavior. There are currently 15 categories under the law for areas of discipline.
The psychology board at a recent long-range planning meeting. (L to R) Drs. Marc Zimmerman, Rita Culross, Darla Burnett, and Phillip Griffin. The board is considering several legislative changes for 2015.
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. 2. Source pages: 3.
A report from the Council for Aid to Education said that 40 percent of college students lack the reasoning skills to succeed in white-collar jobs. According to a report in Wall Street Journal, the Council administered a test of reasoning to graduates from 169 universities and colleges in 2013 and 2014.
The measure, called the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, is said to assess critical thinking and analytic reasoning, along with writing and communication skills. It does not assess subject area knowledge.
The Council for Aid to Education is a New York nonprofit organization that was previously part of Rand Corporation, said the report.
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. 2. Source pages: 3.
The Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists published a policy for media and public contacts, effective in January 2015.
The policy states that the board members or are not to grant interviews to the media. This is a general rule they note. They also note that exceptions to this rule require a formal decision by the board on a case-by-case basis.
The policy statement also indicates that members of the public and the media should not contact board members and individual board members are not authorized to speak for the board.
The policy also confirms that the board will follow the laws regarding public documents and posting of agenda and minutes.
They may, the policy notes, provide statements and answers to questions and information if asked by the public or media if requests are made formally and in writing. These requests must be reviewed formally by the board and may include the response of “no comment,” according to the policy.
The policy also notes that the board’s intention for the guideline is to maintain accuracy.
The policy can be found on the board website.
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. 2. Source pages: 3.
According to 24/7 Wall Street, Louisiana has lost 4.9 percent of its middle class households, placing it sixth in those states where the middle class is declining. The middle class average income was $44,442, placing it at the eight lowest in the states. The poorest 20 percent of households fell at $8,851, lower than every state except for Mississippi. The report authors said, “While the widening income gaps in the states where the middle class is suffering did not always mean a higher poverty rate among residents, in Louisiana the poverty rate increased more than in most states over that time. By 2013, nearly one in five Louisiana residents lived in poverty, one of the highest poverty rates in the country.”
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. 2. Source pages: 4.
The Licensed Professional Counselor Board published or “noticed” 50 pages of guidelines for those with provisional licenses, following the change in the law this past legislative session.
The notice states, “Act 484 of the 2014 Legislative Session empowered the board to provide regulation of the practice and use of the titles ‘Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor’ and ‘Provisional Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.’” Therefore, the Louisiana Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners establishes the rules and regulations herein pursuant to the authority granted to, and imposed upon said board under the provisions of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, Title 37, Chapter 13, R.S. 37:1101-1123.
The proposed Rules cover licensing matters, codes of conduct, supervision, issues with serious mental illness and collaboration, and assessment and others issues for the two newly developed categories of licensees.
The proposed Rules are published in the January 2014 issue of The Louisiana Register, available online.
Interested persons may submit written comments via U.S. Mail to Mary Alice Olsan, Executive Director, Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners, 8631 Summa Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70809 until 4:30 p.m. on February 20, 2015.
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. 2. Source pages: 4.
Effective January 23, Dr. Laura Choate, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), took over the role and duties of the Chair for the Licensed Professional Counselor State Board, announced at the recent board meeting. Dr. Laura Choate is also a Louisiana State University Associate Professor, author, National Board Certified Counselor, and a Board Approved Supervisor in Louisiana. She was the 2009- 2010 chair of the American Counseling Association Publications Committee. The board’s new Vice Chair is Dr. Kathy Steele. “Dr. Steele is the first Board Member who is also a member of the Marriage and Family Therapy Advisory Committee to serve in the Vice-Chair position,” said Mary Alice Olsan, Executive Director for the board to the Times in a recent interview. “We’re thrilled she accepted the nomination.”
Dr. Kathy Steele is an LPC and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Associate Professor of Psychology and Counseling and Director of Clinical Training at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans. She helps train counselors in Havana, Cuba for the Seminary and brings her bilingual and multi- cultural focus to her work.
Olsan also said that Mrs. Penny Millhollon will continue as Board Secretary. “Penny Millhollon was also the first member of the Board and MFTAC to serve in the Secretary position,” Olsan said. “She has served in this role for over a year now and thankfully, accepted the position again.” said Olsan. Ronald (“Ron”) Cathey, LPC- S, LMFT-S has also been appointed to the Board and to the MFTAC, Olsan said. Cathey will replace Mark Reynaud, LPC-S, LMFT-S, who stepped down last year.
Above: The Licensed Professional Counselor Board met in January and announced the new Chair Dr. Laura Choate and Vice Chair Dr. Kathy Steele. Left to right are Kathy Lammert, Dr. Ernie Couger, Dr. Laura Choate, and Dr. Kathy Steele (facing away.)
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. 2. Source pages: 4.
Medical Board Changes Notices, Holds New Hearings Dates Following hearings for public comments on new Rules for Telemedicine and for Unprofessional Conduct, the Medical Board has amended the Rules. New public hearings for comments on the updated proposed Rules will be held February 26 at 630 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. Written comments are due by February 19, 2015.
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. 2. Source pages: 4.
The Psychology board announced in a January memo that they will begin developing a Rule for the Emeritus license holders’ continuing education (CE) requirements but Emeriti will not have to report their CEs until 2017 and 2018.
The memo explained that Emeritus psychologists with odd-numbered licenses will begin collecting CEs this July, 2015. They will then report credits in 2017, for the two-year period. Those with even-numbered licenses are to begin in July 2016, and report in 2018.
In October 2013 when the board made major changes to the Rules for continuing education, now called continuing professional development, they eliminated the phrase that waived the CE requirements for the Emeritus.
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. 2. Source pages: 7.
The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts is an interdisciplinary, international association that focuses on helping professionals improve the lives of children and families by working to resolve conflicts. The association will hold its 52nd annual conference in New Orleans, May 27 to 30 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.
The organization is a source of specialized information and training regarding the courts, legal disputes, parenting issues, child support, child maltreatment, and other topics that are faced by professionals in the court system when they attempt to help children and families in need.
Leslie Todd, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, was the founding President for the Louisiana Chapter of the organization. At the upcoming May conference, Todd will present a workshop on “Compassion Fatigue and the Reflective Brain.”
“Family Court-related work has at its heart traumatized parents and children in a generally dysfunctional system,” said Todd. “We professionals, whether we are therapists, mediators, evaluators or officers of the Court, sustain a lot of ‘collateral damage’ ourselves. We are constantly handed unsolvable problems that must be solved, and our clients often displace their rage, paranoia, distorted grief and anxiety on us.”
Dr. Alicia Pellegrin, forensic and clinical psychologist, told the Times, “It is important that training for evaluators be specific to the practice of child custody as opposed to taking generalized forensic courses, many of which have no bearing on child custody practice,” explained Pellegrin. “One of the important sources of such training is the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, which is the premiere organization dedicated to advancing the field at which family law and mental health intersect,” she said.
“At AFCC conferences, psychologists can hear from and interact with juvenile and family court Judges, attorneys who specialize in family law, forensic investigators, family violence experts, and researchers who specialize in child and family law matters. Equally important at these conferences is the opportunity to chat with other custody evaluators for collaboration and support.”
Pellegrin also noted that another excellent source of training is the American Board of Professional Psychology “offering training in the area by well recognized and highly experienced psychologists who work in the area.”
Todd’s workshop for the national conference of AAFCC will be part of nearly 100 sessions relating to the area of children, courts, legal issues and families. Todd will be also teaching about stress and burnout in this high intensity field, with the help of colleague Nan Waller Burnett, from Colorado. “The tough-minded among us––often the legal folks––are generally anxiety-flingers. (‘What, me worry? I’m fine. Let’s have another drink.’)” said Todd. “The tender-hearted among us –– often the mental health folks––are anxiety- absorbers who stoically go from client to client until we are emotionally and spiritually depleted. Nan and I will help participants identify their own style and find means of self- reflection to prevent compassion fatigue and secondary trauma.”
Others from Louisiana will present in May.
The Hon. Ernestine S. Gray, from New Orleans, will present “Critical Issues in Child Development for Family and Juvenile Judges.” She is joined by the Hon. Karen Adam from Tucson, Arizona, and Drs. Kirsten Lysne and Phillip Stahl. This presentation will include a multi- disciplinary panel of judges and psychologists who will explore children’s developmental needs, focusing on trauma, effects of domestic violence on children at different ages, parenting plans, overnights with young children, and other critical issues judges face daily.
Presenting “Fragile Narcissism: A Forensic Challenge,” is a group with psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, and an attorney, from New Orleans and Metarie: Suzanne C. Klenck, PhD, LCP, Clinical Psychologist; Sarah Hinshaw-Fuselier, PhD, LCSW; Karen VanBeyer, PhD, LCSW; and Anna Wellman, JD, LCSW. This workshop will focus on understanding and working with narcissistic individuals in the family court system. Some traits and disorders may be exacerbated by the divorce process and presenters will cover how some narcissistically fragile individuals will often engage in ongoing legal conflict, or high conflict custody cases.
Lisa Matthews, JD, Hearing Officer, from New Orleans, will present, “Two Program Models and Research on Parenting and Co-parenting Skills.”
Stephen W. Thompson, EdD, from Hammond, Patricia Hicks, JD, from Hammond, Rykert O. Toledano, Jr., JD, from Covington, and the Hon. Mary Clemence Devereux, Family Court Judge, from Covington, will present, “Two Goals: Retraining Family Lawyers and Teaching Co- Parenting in Child Custody.” In this workshop presenters show how Parents learn sound co- parenting skills from attorney-teachers who know courtrooms from the inside out and discourage litigation by supporting the parents as decision- makers in the lives of their children. Attorneys learn by teaching parenting skills and guiding parents to becoming collaborative problem solvers, not just litigants.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.