In this edition of Commission on Accreditation (CoA) Update, we interview Commissioner Philinda S. Hutchings, PhD, ABPP. Hutchings is one of two commissioners who represent the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology (NCSPP).
When did you join the CoA and what was your motivation to do so?
I joined the CoA in 2014. I had been consulting with programs about accreditation issues and had chaired the Accreditation Issues Committee for NCSPP, so I felt ready to serve on the CoA.
How would you describe your experience on the commission? Are there any personal accomplishments that you achieved as a member of CoA of which you are particularly proud?
Serving on the commission is a lot of work, and involves reviewing thousands of pages of documentation in program review. I was prepared for that, and prepared to collaborate with other commissioners. I feel that I always work better as part of a team, and I would describe my experience on the Commission as an exercise in teamwork. For example, as a team, we produced new concepts like the “accredited on contingency” status for doctoral programs and wrote a glossary for the CoA, a project I particularly enjoyed.
You previously served as the president of NCSPP and received the Education Advocacy Grassroots Network Award as an APA federal education advocacy coordinator. How has your background in education advocacy informed your contributions to the commission?
Our students represent the future of health service psychology, and I feel that it is important to work on their behalf to ensure that our communities have access to psychological services. I was initially a reluctant participant in political advocacy, because I could think of so many more fun things to do than talk to politicians about supporting psychology education. However, I soon learned that it wasn’t hard, and that it is absolutely necessary to keep our profession healthy and relevant. I firmly believe that we must participate in the public discourse about health care, mental health, and education funding, or we will be left out of all of it, to the detriment of our profession and our communities. Accreditation is an important quality control mechanism for the education and training of practitioners in health service psychology, and allows us to participate in that public discourse with confidence and assurance of our essential role in health care.
Over the course of your career, how do you feel psychology’s role in society has changed, if at all?
Psychology’s role in society has greatly changed since the beginning of my career. When I was in graduate school at the University of Kansas, community mental health centers were just forming and psychologists were often staff members who provided psychotherapy and psychological testing. Neuropsychology was a new area, and there were few mentions of diversity in any of my classes. There were many sources of funding for graduate students and most graduated with little debt. How things have changed! In some ways, psychology’s role has strengthened, such as in developing new psychological assessments and treatments for mental health conditions and for health and habit problems, in recognizing and celebrating the role of individual and cultural diversity, in gaining hospital privileges and in primary health care. In other ways, psychology’s role has weakened, such as full participation in health care and reimbursement being seen as too expensive for most people to access. I think we, as psychology, spent so much time differentiating ourselves from psychiatry and medicine that we lost some of our influence and participation in health care, and now we must strive to get it back.
What advice would you give to psychologists in leadership positions and to future CoA members?
I would remind psychologists that leaders are responsible to their followers, and that we all must never forget to listen to and represent those who follow us. I think that new commissioners will quickly learn to listen to the CoA’s publics and constituents, and will take that responsibility seriously. I would also advise future CoA members to have some fun, because work is always easier when you can enjoy doing it. Some of my best memories of the CoA are times when we were having fun. Commissioners are very smart and clever people, which can lead to many opportunities for levity and humor.
You were a member of the commission during the transition to the new Standards of Accreditation (SoA). What was a highlight of your participation in that process?
I think one of the highlights was participating in site visitor training for the SoA. Everyone was very interested in the upcoming changes, and how they could contribute to the transition. The introduction of concepts like Profession-Wide Competencies and changes to the collection and reporting of outcome data also generated interest in their potential benefits to the quality of health service psychology programs.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I might also add that I was probably one of the quirkiest or “most colorful” commissioners, as Garland Hershey said. After I retired from my day job, I surprised other commissioners by sporting different colored streaks in my hair.