Vol 76. No. 1 – December 30, 2020 Message from WSPA Executive Director
WSPA started 2020 with great goals and intentions but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and what we all knew as normal was replaced with a lot of change and disruption for everyone. Yet with all the hardships 2020 will be known for, WSPA rose to the challenge and survived the year financially better than expected in comparison to the past three years.
Message from 2020 Board President
Dear fellow psychologists,
I am confident that we are all tired of the many adjectives we’ve used to attempt to capture the experience of being a human in the world during 2020, so I will not trot any out here. It has been, simply, quite a year.
As you would guess, I did not expect to be the president of WSPA during a global pandemic. The role is a privilege under any circumstances, and this year was actually not exceptional in that regard. I have been awed by our profession’s extremely quick pivot to the world of telepsychology, and tremendously moved by your ongoing dedication to serving your clients and patients, even while living in the same circumstances that have precipitated an ongoing and likely lengthy mental health crisis in our country and across the world.
This year, WSPA members have done remarkable work in everything from pandemic response, legislative advocacy, community building in our chapters, supporting early career psychologists and graduate students, ethics consultation, continuing education, a speaker’s bureau, to the “good trouble” of working to make WSPA an anti-racist organization. I commend each and every one of you who took time out of your busy lives to give back to your colleagues, the students who are the future of our field, our profession, and the communities in which we live and work. I am honored to know and have volunteered alongside you.
It gives me great pleasure to say that I am completely confident that our incoming president, Dr. David Wiesner, will be an exemplary steward for our organization and advocate for our profession and the people we serve. He brings a wealth of experience to the position, dual passions for psychology and service, and insightful ideas about how to innovatively further our mission. 2021 is going to be a great year for WSPA (and I hope more broadly than that, as well).
Thank you for inspiring me, motivating me, and collaborating with me.
In gratitude,
Julia Mackaronis, Ph.D. WSPA Board President, 2020
2020 Trustees Start the Year Planning
2020 started started off normally for WSPA's Trustees. In January, the board met in person in Bellevue, WA to elect officers followed by a half-day retreat to plan the year and set goals.
During that meeting, the board discussed:
Left to Right: Front Row. Dr. Debbie Shapiro (Laptop), Dr. Julia Mackaronis, Dr. Casey Ward, Dr. Samantha Slaughter.
The Legislative Advocacy Committee
The Legislative Advocacy Committee is in its second full year and working with a new lobbyist, Melanie Smith. Casey Ward, Psy.D. is now joined by Julie Johnson-Sharrette, Psy.D. as the committee co-chairs. The 2020 legislature was a short session that began in January, and under the guidance of our lobbyist, LAC saw 9 bills that WSPA supported become law. WSPA’s mission includes the goal to advocate for public policies that promote psychological services, the field of psychology, and a psychologically healthy Washington. WSPA has historically considered its highest legislative & regulatory priorities to be: retaining the integrity and strength of our licensing statute or affective our disciplinary process; responding to any bills that affect how we practice; opposition to any infringement of our state mental health parity mandate; and responding to social justice bills that directly affect treatment and/or access to care.
PLC and 2020 APA Outstanding STPA of the Year
In early March, WSPA's sends a delegation to APA's Practice Leadership Conference (PLC). At the conference, State Territorial Psychological Association (SPTA) leaders and APA representatives network, learn, and also lobbied on Capital Hill with our Washington State Members of Congress. Our delegation consisted of:
News of the COVID-19 infections in the U.S. from Washington State were just beginning to be reported as PLC began. Naturally, that had everyone concerned and delegates began to practice safety precautions of additional hand washing and elbow bumps instead of handshakes.
Accepting the Outstanding SPTA of the Year of the Award on Stage
PLC and Lobbying on Capitol Hill
The last day of PLC is spent lobbying with Washington's Congressional representatives on matters that effect mental health and the field of psychology. The delegation was split into two teams and were able to visit every Washington State Member of Congress or their office to lobby on the following three points:
Left to Right: Dr. Samantha Slaughter - Director of Professional Affairs, Representative DelBene, Dr. Julia Mackaronis - SPTA President Delegate Left to Right: Dr. David C. Wiesner - Federal Advocacy Coordinator, Madeline Brodt - APA Grad Student Delegate,
WSPA's Disaster Response Network Responds to COVID-19 The best time to prepare for a disaster is before it happens. Psychologists have responded to natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes, and human-made disasters such as mass shootings. In 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has challenged governments’ and organizations’ abilities to respond. Many state psychological associations also found themselves challenged with little bandwidth or experience to respond to their members and have needed to direct their members to APA's website for help.
Debbie joined the WSPA Board with a goal to revive WSPA's Disaster Relief Network (DRN) and began organizing the DRN in 2018 to get volunteers trained through the American Red Cross. At the 2019 Fall Convention, she organized a DRN information table to recruit volunteers into the DRN and began to network with state and national organizations in disaster preparedness.
Fast forward to March 2020, when the first cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. were reported in our state. As Governor Inslee began giving recommendations for social distancing, wearing masks, and personal hygiene to begin flattening the curve, Dr. Shapiro and WSPA Board members, including those attending Practice Leadership Conference in D.C., began collecting information about the virus and on transitioning to telepsychology to create a dedicated webpage on COVID-19. As the content on the page began to grow, WSPA President Julia Mackaronis, Ph.D. began sending members weekly updates of the available content and encouragement for members to be safe and support each other. An ad hoc committee also worked on reopening guidelines with considerations for practitioners weighing what they might need in place to resume seeing clients in-person when able to do so safely. See the next article for a list of ways WSPA responded to COVID-19. With the recent November/December spikes in COVID-19 infections, we know that requests from frontline and essential workers, as well as others affected, will continue. A tile graphic has been added to the website to link to the volunteer network. Additional volunteers are always welcome to support the need across the state. If you would like to join WSPA’s COVID-19 Volunteer Network, please fill out the form at this link.
14 Ways WSPA Responded to the Pandemic
How the Washington State COVID-19 Vaccination Plan Relates to Psychologists
Dr. Samantha Slaughter, our Director of Professional Affairs, has started fielding questions from members about vaccination plans, and this was also a topic of conversation on the listserv earlier this week of 12/28/20 (If you’d not on the listserv, please email Office Manager Sierra VanderHoogt at wspa@wspapsych.org)
We want to share some pertinent resources:
In the listserv discussion, our outgoing president Dr. Julia Mackaronis noted the following, “To me, the question of advocating for psychologists to receive the vaccine is an interesting one, because it is intertwined with the question of who else in the communities we serve might need advocacy for vaccine distribution. For example, psychologists serve people with low-paying jobs that can't be done remotely, resulting in chronic risk of COVID-19 exposure often combined with insufficient healthcare coverage, and we also serve Black and Latinx people, who have demonstrably higher infection and mortality rates from COVID-19 (not to mention that people of color are overrepresented in low-paying jobs). One of our ethical principles is justice, and it is my personal belief that a truly just and equitable vaccine distribution plan would mean that psychologists who are in relatively privileged positions are not prioritized above non-psychologists in less privileged positions that therefore confer greater COVID-19 risk.”
Of course, there are also psychologists who are at greater COVID-19 risk for a variety of reasons unrelated to professional practice (e.g., age); please see our state’s plan above for how people with various risk factors are included in the rollout.
Dr. Slaughter will provide additional updates regarding vaccine distribution as they are available, and if you are interested in these issues, please consider joining our Disaster Relief Network!
Committees Provide Member Opportunities It is said your membership satisfaction is related into what you put into it. Some members join WSPA for reduced rates for stand-alone workshops and conventions, DPA consultations for Premium and Platinum level members, Ethics and Legal consultation, and benefiting from legislative efforts. If you are yearning for more out of your WSPA membership, however, then participating on a committee will likely increase your membership enjoyment.
Ethics is one of WSPA’s long-standing committees. They meet once a month to review member requests on ethical issues. The committee doesn’t just provide consultation on ethical issues, but are a resource for thoughtful decision-making for facing ethical issues. For years, all members of the Ethics Committee have been located in Spokane, but in 2019, they welcomed the Dr. Connie Beck, who lives in Tacoma, and began meeting by Zoom. Three committee members, Pamela Ridgway, Ph.D, Stephanie Kuffel, Ph.D, and Carol Moore, Ph.D., are available to take peer-to-peer member consultations. If you are interested in joining the Ethics Committee, please contact Committee Chair Laura Asbell by email at laura@asbellhealth.com.
The Early Career Psychologists (ECP) committee is another long-standing committee led by Sharon Young, Ph.D., with committee co-chairs Lynda Hernández, Ph.D., and Bethany Balkus, Psy.D. For many years, the ECP holds a Newly Licensed Psychologists (NLP) Celebration to welcome those who had been licensed within the past two years to the field of psychology.
Grad Students (WSPAGS)
The WSPA Graduate Students (WSPAGS) was another committee that was revived in 2020 by Trustees Dominika Breedlove Psy.D., Lynda Hernández, Ph.D., NCSP, and board president Julia Mackaronis, Ph.D. In September, the WSPAGS committee hosted a 1 CE titled Life After Graduation: Review of the Licensure Application Process and Exams. The committee then began to plan a virtual poster session that would take place after the convention but decided it was best to allow more time and rescheduled it to February 5, 2021 from 12-1:30 PM. All WSPA members are welcome to view the virtual poster session. Information and links can be found at this link: https://wspapsych.org/2020fcposter.php Summer Town Hall meeting gets into Good Trouble
In July, WSPA hosted a Town Hall with 2 topics that could be discussed in breakout rooms simultaneously, and 44 members attended. One breakout room allowed members to talk about how they were adjusting their practice to COVID-19. The second breakout room, attended by a majority of attendees, discussed ways for WSPA to become an anti-racist organization, in response to the killings of multiple Black Americans this year, often at the hands of law enforcement such as George Floyd, and related civil rights protests. During the development of the committee’s mission statement, it was also decided to rename the committee the Good Trouble Committee, as a nod to civil rights activist and U.S. Representative from Georgia John C. Lewis, who passed away in July. In March 1965, Lewis suffered a broken skull as he attempted to march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in peaceful protest for civil rights. He attended the 55th anniversary of that march in March 2020 and remarked, “Get into good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America”
Speaker’s Bureau
WSPA Transition to Online CE Workshops and Fall Convention As our members transitioned to telepsychology, WSPA's staff began the same transition to online CE workshops and exploring how to create a virtual convention. This report will not go over the various topics and speakers of workshops and the convention; instead, we will report on the business end of the workshops and conventions.
The registration side of the convention was programmed by WSPA Office Manager, Sierra VanderHoogt and featured a personal convention portal that allowed attendees to review and change the workshops they had signed up for and join the online trainings. The portal also provided links for attendees to take their CE evaluations.
Staff knew that many people would have questions, so decided to host a virtual Zoom office each day of the convention for attendees to drop in to ask questions. The convention graphic and theme reflecting a change to a virtual format
Personal event portal allowed attendees to have all information in one area.
The virtual convention also allowed WSPA to feature speakers from outside of the area. The Keynote speaker was from New York and we were able to get speakers from Delaware, Alaska, and California. In addition, we also had attendees from Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho. Overall, the reviews of the convention were very positive, with many saying the topics and quality of the presentations kept their attention the full day without experiencing Zoom fatigue. The speakers and their topics can be found at this link: https://wspapsych.org/2020fcworkshops.php Dr. Doug Tynan presenting Diabetes and Mental Health from his home office in Delaware
From a financial perspective, the Virtual Convention was a major success. Given major expenses of in-person conventions like catering and equipment rental, such conventions are typically revenue-neutral at best .Because of this, WSPA does not budget our convention to be a major income stream; instead, conventions are seen as a branding and membership recruitment event. Hosting our own virtual convention versus using a 3rd party online platform changed that equation in 2020. Attendance for the online convention was a little lower than an in-person convention, but the expenses were also 46% lower which realized a net gain for the first time. The potential to increase attendance for 2021 is high now that we have the template of a virtual convention established. At this point, we do not know if health and distancing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic will allow a live convention as we’ve done in the past, but we do know that including virtual workshops will be part of our future conventions.
Chapters Become Active Via Zoom Chapter 1
Chapter 1 in Spokane and other eastern counties continues to be WSPA’s most active chapter. This year’s chapter president is Emily Crawford, Psy.D., who transitioned chapter meetings to Zoom meetings. Chapter 1 provides a free 1 CE training during their 2-hour meetings.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 became active thanks to the efforts of C.J. Swanlund, Psy.D. This chapter also meets monthly by Zoom and members report they enjoy being able to network and share practice issues, books they have read, and just being able to connect with others in their area. Chapter 3 has a listserv members can join.
Chapters 4 and 5
Chapters 4 and 5 have not yet begun meeting but both have list servs and would benefit from a member in each area to organize a first meeting. If you are interested in organizing your chapter meeting, please do the following:
Organizers can adopt this short agenda to start their first meetings.
Some members in Chapter 2 have been networking with Chapter 1 and we encourage those without an active Chapter to participate in Chapter 1 or Chapter 3 meetings. To begin participating with an active chapter, log in to your WSPA account and click on the Communications icon. Then choose Message Boards and opt into one of the Chapter message boards, which means that you will receive emails sent on the related listserv.
WSPA Receives a Second Grant from APA to Support RxP Efforts by: David Shearer Ph.D. In August 2019, the Committee of State Leaders (CSL) awarded the Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA) an APA Services Inc. grant in the amount of $5,000 to help pay for expenses related to advocating for prescriptive psychology in our state (RxP). We are pleased to announce that the CSL has awarded WSPA a new grant in November 2020 in the amount of $10,000 to continue to pursue our efforts to bring prescribing psychology to Washington state.
Director of Professional Affairs: A Year in Review by: Samantha Slaughter, Psy.D.
Our Director of Professional Affairs, Samantha Slaughter, Psy.D. provided an end of the year update for our Annual Meeting via video viewable this link: https://youtu.be/oR_Ys434rBk?
2020 Washington Psychologist Awards
This year the Washington Psychologist Awards looked a little different meeting virtually, but we were still able to celebrate the individuals and organizations who have contributed meaningfully to the mission of WSPA, which is to support, promote and advance the science, education, and practice of psychology in the public interest. As with everything this year, it turned out that a majority of winners were involved helping in some way with COVID-19, including an award the board kept secret for Trustee Debbie Shapiro, Psy.D. for her outstanding Disaster Relief work on COVID-19. 2020 WA Psychologist Award Winners Given in recognition of significant contributions to the field of psychology. This award recognizes outstanding professional contributions to knowledge, to applied psychology in professional practice, or in the public interest, while a resident of Washington State. Andrew H. Benjamin Award Given in recognition of an individual members outstanding and tireless contributions to the
Winner: Sharon Young, Psy.D. Social Issues Award: Given in recognition of outstanding work to advance the mental health of the community and to apply psychology in the public interest.
Winner: Trevor Covington, M.S., C.E.M. Mental & Behavioral Health Response Coordinator and Group Supervisor Division of Emergency Preparedness & Response Washington State Department of Health Legislative Service Award Honors a Washington State elected official who has contributed to the psychological health of their community.
Winner: Senator Randi Becker, 2nd Legislative District Distinguished Service Award Given in recognition of outstanding work in support of WSPAs mission through some outstanding contribution.
Presidential Service Award Given to the out-going President of the Board, in recognition of the service rendered.
Winner: Julia Mackaronis, Ph.D.
Membership and Finances on an upward swing!
We want to end the 2020 Year in Review on a very positive financial report.
Like most state psychological associations, WSPA's primary income stream is membership, and for us, CE workshops are a distant second. In 2019, the board took a mid-year budget review and made some very hard decisions to make mid-year cuts to professional services: management, DPA, and lobbying in order to end the year in the black. The cuts and steady membership income resulted in a positive net financial gain for the first time in over ten years.
Annual membership renewals rose to 98% of budget and new memberships were up an amazing 215% of budget. Final annual expenses for 2020 are forecasted to be 76% of budget to end the year with a net operating revenue of 435% of budget!
We know that 2020’s financial position will be an anomaly for WSPA so we will continue to be fiscally conservative in budgeting and spending for 2021. It is especially important for us to use the revenue to rebuild WSPA’s cushion for financial emergencies, which had been depleted over the past 10 years. We owe our members a lot of gratitude for supporting WSPA in such a big way to make WSPA financially healthy these past two years, and especially in 2020. 93 new members in 2020 representing an 18% growth in membership from 2019 The 3 year trend of increase revenue and lowered expenses has resulted in a 435% net revenue for 2020
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