During the summer 2021 program review meeting, the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) voted to approve Serious Mental Illness (SMI) as a postdoctoral specialty area. SMI has been added to the list of accredited specialties in Implementing Regulation (IR) C-5 P: Postdoctoral Residency Specialty Practice Areas. Additionally, the CoA voted to separate out IR C-9 P: Profession-wide Competencies into subsections—one for each specialty area. This separation will allow greater responsivity to future changes made to the IR document. Therefore, a 30-day period of Public Notice will be forthcoming, both announcing the addition of SMI to the specialties accredited by CoA and the IR defining expectations for all programs to train in the profession-wide competencies, including those in identified specialization areas.
After the 30-day public notice period, four sections of IR C-9 P will be put out for public comment. These include revisions to the existing Forensic and Geropsychology specialty areas and two applicant specialty areas:
- Police and Public Safety, and
- Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy.
