APA Division 37

Reports from Division 37 Task Forces:

Interdivisional Task Force on Disaster, Community Readiness, and Recovery:

The Disaster Recovery Manual project began after Hurricane Katrina. Struck by the lack of practical guidance available for community leaders about how to help their communities recover from disaster, a Task Force on Disaster, Community Readiness, and Recovery was formed by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA; Division 27). The development of the Manual has been a large-scale multi-year collaboration, with additions and revisions made by Task Force members, including community psychologists and liaisons from other APA divisions, including Division 37. At its core, the Manual is designed to guide both lay and professional readers through the steps required to understand the potential effects of disaster, organized the community, assess its needs, make an action plan, choose strategies for intervention, reach out to various constituencies, track results, and share lessons learned. Click here for a link to the Manual. We hope you may use this Manual in your work.

Additionally, in connection with the Task Force's work funded by Psychology Beyond Borders, the Manual will be test piloted in a community.

Contact Ryan Kilmer, Division 37 Liaison to the Task Force, for more information.

Interdivisional Task Force on Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health:

This task force, made up of eight APA Divisions, seeks to promote the conceptualization and realization of a new national model for promoting, preserving, and restoring our children’s mental health. The task force was formed to help APA take a leadership role in responding to the national crisis in children’s mental health care highlighted by both the current and previous Presidential administrations. This model calls for a comprehensive, sustainable, collaborative system where the mental health of children and families is treated as a primary health care concern.

Chair: Karen Saywitz

Participating Divisions:

¨Lead Division: Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice (Div. 37)
¨Developmental Psychology (Div. 7)
¨Clinical Psychology (Div. 12)
¨School Psychology (Div. 16)
¨Family Psychology (Div. 43)
¨Society for Community Research & Action (Div. 27)
¨Society for Pediatric Psychology (Div. 54)
¨Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (Div. 53)

For more information, see:

The report of the APA Working Group on Children’s Mental Health, 2001, at http://www.apa.org/pi/cyf/dpnacmh.pdf

The Report of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Conference on Children’s Mental Health, 2000, at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/cmh/childreport.htm

Talking Points on Child and Adolescent Mental Health http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/tftalkingpoints.html

Or contact Karen Saywitz, Chair, at ksaywitz@ucla.edu.

Child Advocacy Training Initiative:

This task force, headed by Dr. Allison Redlich and Dr. Sandra Bishop-Josef, will start its second year in 2006. They have spearheaded tremendous undertakings of getting materials together to be accessible by those of you at the front line. For example, they are developing a CD to disseminate to grass roots organizations, individuals, and communities. The CD will list steps to take in advocacy as well as information to use as you visit with legislators and community leaders. Some of what the communities might do is have a specific legislative goal proposed and backed up by sound research. In this way, groups could prepare talking points and information packets to leave when advocating for an issue (one page is recommended). The committee will present a symposium in New Orleans in August entitle "Psychologists Advocating for Children and Families at the State and Community level: Why, Who, and How." Come by to meet them and volunteer!

Ethnic Minority Issues:

This new task force is being formed by Natalie Porter. The task force members are interested in several issues centered around studying the efficacy of current practices for intervention and treatment available to underserved and culturally diverse children and families. The work of the 2004 President, Dr. Luis Vargas, and the Child and Family Policy and Practice Review on Cultural Diversity and Mental Health are the catalysts for this task force.