DIVISION SPOTLIGHT

DIVISION SPOTLIGHT

DIVISION NEWS

Div. 1 (Society of General Psychology)

As of April 5, Div. 1 has changed its name from General Psychology to the Society of General Psychology.

The division has met the requirements for a divisional name change as stated in the Association Rules. Div. 1's membership voted to approve the change at its August 1998 meeting, and in early 1999, all existing divisions and representatives to the council were notified of the proposed change and given a 60-day comment period. The Central Office received no objections, thereby making the change effective.

Please reflect this change in any publication that your office maintains which contains a listing of the APA divisions.

Div. 31 (State Psychological Association Affairs)

During APA's 1999 Annual Convention, Div. 31 is co-sponsoring a Telehealth Miniconvention with divisions 1 (Society for the General Psychology), 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology), 18 (Psychologists in Public Service), 29 (Psychotherapy), 35 (Women), 38 (Health), 42 (Psychologists in Independent Practice), 46 (Media) and the American Psychological Association for Graduate Students.

This miniconvention will be the largest and most comprehensive series of presentations ever held at APA's Annual Convention with a total of 47 presentations and 10 discussants by professionals from 21 telehealth-related organizations. All presentations will be held on Saturday, Aug. 21, and Sunday, Aug. 22, in the Hynes Convention Center meeting room 100.

In addition to hearing panelists from leading telehealth programs in the United States, the audience can participate in several presentations that allow them to view and experience the advantages and limitations of live videoconferencing for delivering psychotherapy. These presentations will be experiential, and will allow the audience to work directly with the equipment in the Convention Center meeting room.

Among the topics the presentations will address are:

* The integration of technology and mental health services.

* The future roles and capabilities of telepsychology.

* The use of telehealth in corrections settings and the courts.

* The application of telehealth in graduate education and in health psychology.

* Legal and ethical issues in telehealth.

* The role of women's issues in telehealth.

* Research issues, methods and outcomes in telehealth.

* New findings on the effects of Internet use.

This Telehealth Miniconvention is being coordinated by Div. 31's 1999 Convention Program chair, Jeffrey Barnett, PsyD and is chaired by Marlene Maheu, PhD. This miniconvention has grown out of Maheu's work who developed and chaired a program on telehealth issues at last year's convention.

Div. 33 (Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities)

Charles Lund, PhD, a private practitioner in Seattle is working with the court system on behalf of people with mental retardation and other learning disabilities who have encountered the criminal justice system. He has written a paper summarizing some of his experiences and recommendations to be published in a future issue of the Div. 33 newsletter.

Lund is interested in establishing an informal national network of expertise related to this challenging aspect of psychological practice. Contact him via e-mail at clund@ix.netcom.com.

Div. 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues)

Steve James, PhD, president of Div. 44, has appointed Linda Wilson, PhD, as the chair of the new Women's Health Task Force. Wilson has conducted preliminary survey research that indicates breast cancer to be the health concern of greatest importance among physicians in the Atlanta area. Therefore, the task force will most likely focus their efforts in that particular area.

To learn more about the task force, contact Wilson at 547 Ponce de Leon Ave, N.E., Suite 103, Atlanta, GA 30308, (404) 873-6001, fax: (404) 627-1849, e-mail: toon@mindspring.com.

Div. 21 (Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology)

In response to a report submitted by members of Div. 21, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is helping to inform medical personnel on errors that can occur during the radiation treatment known as remote afterloading brachytherapy (RAB) for cancer patients.

NRC asked the Pacific Science & Engineering Group (PSE), an applied experimental and engineering psychology firm funded and staffed by members of Div. 21, to investigate what human factors lead to incorrect radiation doses and excessive radiation exposure. In addition to learning the source of these problems, the commission wanted to highlight protective procedures. Jim Callan, PhD, and Richard Kelly, PhD, members of Div. 21, established PSE in 1984 to provide research and analysis for problems people encounter in complex systems and organizations.

RAB treatment uses a computer and a remote-controlled transport mechanism to place high-intensity radioactive isotopes adjacent to tumor tissue. In the case of a lung treatment, for example, a physician inserts guide tubes into a patient's lung near the tumor. Afterwards, a staff member moves the patient to a shielded RAB treatment room. The guide tubes allow radiation therapists and physicists to deliver appropriate dosage to the tumor, while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue and hospital staff.

From 1993 to 1995, the investigating team met with RAB equipment manufacturers and visited a stratified sample of 23 U.S. hospitals, including radiation oncology workstations. The team examined staff training, procedures and equipment to see if the hospitals followed established guidelines.

Among several problem areas, the investigating team found that:

* Staff members had trouble visualizing internal organs in their three-dimensional spatial arrangements using the two-dimensional x-ray projections or computer-generated images.

* When staff transferred data between each other or the computer, they used terms and followed procedures inconsistently, which increased the chances of errors. Radiation dosages changed from site to site, and staff members found it difficult to catch data entry mistakes unless the computer noted an improbable calculation.

* Hospital sites held few programs to train staff on RAB procedures and operations, which depended on observations, and trial and error.

PSE made several suggestions to improve RAB practices and procedures. These recommendations included changes to staff training, computer software and hardware. NRC published these findings in a guideline and has since presented this information to radiation oncology and medical physics conferences.

For more information on these results, contact PSE at 6310 Greenwich Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92122, (619) 535-1661, fax: (619) 535-1665, or NRC in Washington, D.C., (800) 397-4209. When calling NRC, please tell the librarian you are looking for new regulation number CR-6125.

DIVISION AWARDS

Div. 17 (Counseling)

Div. 17 and eight counseling psychologists have donated $51,000 to establish the American Psychological Foundation's Div. 17/Counseling Psychology Endowment Fund. The fund will sponsor not-for-profit activities for scientific, literary or educational purposes that benefit the science and practice of counseling psychology.

For years, the counseling psychology field has strongly adhered to the scientist-professional model of training, with its emphasis on integrating science and practice. Counseling psychologists seek to analyze both human behavior and experience systematically, and to evaluate the effectiveness of all applications dispassionately. Based on this approach, the APF­Div. 17 fund will sponsor activities that emphasize the integration of science and practice and support research on and the implementation of innovative models or programs.

The eight Div. 17 members who made individual contributions to establish the fund are Rosie Phillips Bingham, PhD, Lenore W. Harmon, PhD, John L. Holland, PhD, Naomi M. Meara, PhD, W. Bruce Walsh, PhD, Michael J. Patton, PhD, Bruce R. Fretz, PhD, and Gerald L. Stone, PhD.

Div. 17 itself contributed $25,000 in response to their generosity. Any member of Div. 17 may apply for a grant from this fund. Send all proposals to Div. 17 president W. Bruce Walsh, PhD, at Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210­1222. To make a donation, send contributions to APF, Div. 17/Counseling Psychology Fund, at the APA address.

--M. Waters

Divisions 29 (Psychotherapy) and 42 (Independent Practice)

As part of its Talk to Someone Who Can Help brochure series, divisions 29 and 42 offer two brochures on "Breast Cancer" and "Serious Illness" designed to help practitioners show the public how psychology can help people overcome the stress and anxiety of cancer and other illnesses.

"Serious illness patients and their families represent a significant population that can benefit from psychological services," says Laurie Kolt, PhD, a private practitioner in La Jolla, Calif. and co-director of marketing for the brochure project. "However, they won't come to see us if they don't know how we can help. They need to know how practitioners can work with the psychological aspects of their treatment, recovery, rehabilitation and maintenance phases of their care. They also need to know how they can find us."

The "Breast Cancer" brochure describes the possible emotional reactions to breast-cancer diagnosis, and how psychologists can ease the fear and confusion women and families undergo through this process. The brochure focuses on ways psychologists can assist women in making medical decisions, coping with treatments, long-term recovery and helping family members understand what the patient will experience.

The "Serious Illness" brochure also describes how to help clients make effective decisions while reducing anxiety, and goes into further details on the importance of establishing a strong support system during illness and teaching clients how to communicate with doctors more effectively. "Serious Illness" also discusses the health and support systems of the caregiver.

Kolt says that psychologists can make their presence known in a variety of ways:

* Develop methods to inform the medical community about the value of psychotherapy with health-related issues. The cancer and serious illness brochures can help establish a professional relationship with medical and nontraditional health-care communities which can act as referral sources.

* Increase community exposure in your local area on the role psychologists can play. For example, psychologists could become more visible during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October by holding workshops, seminars, publishing articles and communicating through the media.

Kolt will discuss these and other strategies in a workshop entitled "Practice development issues--reaching cancer survivors and their families," at APA's Annual Convention in Boston with Barbara Wainrib, EdD, to be held Aug. 23 from 1­2:50 p.m. Clinical topics will include coping with diagnosis, intervention modalities, grieving and resetting life goals. Practice development topics will examine how psychologists may reach clients who need these important services by teaching community outreach techniques for cancer patients and their families, building referral sources with other groups (i.e., oncologists, "loss-of-spouse" support groups and hospices), and discussing successful ways to reach the public through brochures, writing, seminars, media work and community health screenings. To learn more about Kolt's marketing strategies for serious illnesses, contact: 1030 Pearl St., Suite 3, La Jolla, CA 92037, (617) 456-2005, e-mail: ljkolt@aol.com, web site: www.kolt.com.

Members of divisions 29 and 42 can purchase 50 "Breast Cancer" or "Serious Illness" brochures for $25, or pay $37.50 to have their name and address printed on the brochures. Other APA members pay $35 without the printed information and $47.50 with the printed information; nonmembers pay $40 without the printed information and $52.50 with name and address printed on the brochure. The brochures may be purchased in quantities of 500 or 1,000, and in quantities of 50 without the printed information only. Contact: Tracy Martin, The Brochure Project, 6557 E. Riverdale, Mesa, AZ 85215, (480) 854-8950 or (602) 854-8950.



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