Jasmin Llamas, PhD, first began advocating to protect funding for the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) in 2012, when she was a third-year doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
At first, she was intimidated. Although she'd received advocacy training through APA's Public Interest Government Relations Office and was well prepared to present her case to her members of Congress, "it was still really nerve-wracking," recalls Llamas.
But her experience on Capitol Hill boosted her self-confidence. This year, she returned to the Hill twice — once as chair of the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity and again as part of MFP's Psychology Summer Institute.
"When I went back these last two times, I felt much more confident," Llamas says.
It was thanks in large part to the efforts of Llamas and other psychology graduate students, psychologists and other mental health professionals that Congress doubled the fiscal year 2014 appropriations funding for MFP to $10 million.
"This experience has really given me a greater understanding of how our role as a psychologist is directly impacted by policy, and of the need for us to take a proactive stance," says Llamas, now a psychology professor at Santa Clara University.
Like Llamas, many students want to advocate on behalf of the psychology field. But many are unsure how to get started or even whether they can fit another activity into their already packed schedules.
The good news is that there are many opportunities for students to get involved, and it doesn't have to involve a lot of your time, says Kathleen Gathercoal, PhD, a psychology professor at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.
"Everyone can find a place to make a contribution," Gathercoal says.
In addition, psychology students' voices are essential, says Ellen Garrison, PhD, APA's senior policy advisor. Their special training and expertise in human behavior put them in a unique position to weigh in on laws, policies and programs that can bolster support for psychology research, secure the profession's future and even improve the health of the nation.
"APA's Government Relations staff can only do so much — we really depend on the voices of graduate students," Garrison says. "The truth is that their voice is just as strong as anyone else's voice in terms of being heard on Capitol Hill. It doesn't matter that you don't have your degree or your license yet, as long as you're 18 and are signed up to vote, members of Congress want to hear from you."
Interested in promoting a psychology cause? Here's a step-by-step guide to finding your place:
#1 Join associations
Becoming a member of APA and your state, provincial or territorial psychological association (SPTA) is one of the most important and least time-consuming actions you can take to get involved in advocacy, Gathercoal says.
"Just by taking this step, the folks who are going to visit Capitol Hill or speak about psychological issues can say, 'I speak for this many people,'" she says. Your membership adds to the strength of the associations' lobbying efforts.
Joining your state or local psychological association is also a great way to learn more about issues in the local psychology community and the other ways to become involved in advocacy, says Iowa State University graduate student Jeritt Tucker, who is a regional advocacy coordinator on the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT). The team is a network of graduate students who advocate on behalf of psychology.
"These associations are usually very interested in getting graduate students involved in advocacy because we represent upcoming professionals in the field," says Tucker. "Sometimes when a younger face comes into a legislative issue, people pay more attention because they represent the future."
#2 Sign up for advocacy listservs
Once you've joined your local psychological association, make sure you're receiving all the information you can about advocacy efforts at both the federal and state levels, says Sabrina Esbitt, PhD, chair of ACT and a postdoctoral fellow at the Manhattan VA.
"Your state psychological association's listserv is where all the really active people communicate," Esbitt says. "I've learned so much about the psychological community in New York state and the resources available to me just by getting on the listserv."
Esbitt and others also recommend subscribing to the Psychology Advocacy Network, which delivers timely, important federal updates and action alerts from APA's Education, Public Interest and Science Government Relations Offices. Subscribers receive emails to connect them with tools to call or send advocacy messages to members of Congress. Recent advocacy issues have included mental health on college campuses, extension of unemployment insurance and federal science funding.
The network's impact is significant. Last year, for example, nearly 1,500 individuals generated more than 4,400 advocacy messages to Capitol Hill in response to the debate over changes to the interest rates for federal student loans. It was in response to a single action alert issued by APA's Education Government Relations Office and coordinated with APAGS. The alert was posted on a number of APAGS listservs, says Alexandra Ginsberg, legislative and federal affairs associate in APA's Education Government Relations Office.
"It was the second most successful action alert out of APA's Education, Public Interest or Science Directorates ever," she says, noting that the group's most successful alert happened in 2007 and was targeted to secure funding for the Graduate Psychology Education program. Students interested in learning more about the initiatives of APA's Practice Organization, including efforts around health-care reform, mental health parity and prescriptive authority for psychologists, should also join the Action E-List.
#3 Educate yourself
For those of us who haven't studied government relations since high school, APA offers an online training module to help psychology students and trainees gain the skills needed to become effective public policy advocates. Developed in 2013 by APA's Education and Public Interest Government Relations Offices, the PsycAdvocate module series) includes an introduction to advocacy, a review of the structure and functions of the federal government, an overview of the legislative and regulatory processes, strategies for effectively informing and influencing policymakers, and an introduction to state and local advocacy.
"These modules provide a primer on the legislative process, and it's the first thing we recommend to people interested in getting into advocacy," says Micah Haskell-Hoehl, senior policy associate in APA's Public Interest Government Relations Office. The first module is free, and the rest are $25 each for APA members. Graduate students get 50 percent off with the checkout code PsycAdv50.
#4 Volunteer your time
Next, contact your ACT campus representative to see what advocacy activities you can take part in on campus, Esbitt says. He or she may ask you to help educate other students on your campus about advocacy initiatives via email or by hosting brown bag lunches. She also suggests asking faculty who are interested in advocacy whether there are ways you can promote these issues within the department or on campus.
"A lot of times, faculty are really busy, but if you're interested in speaking for a few minutes about something that's really important to you, they're often more than willing to give you the class time," Esbitt says.
If your campus doesn't have an ACT representative, sign up to become one, she says.
#5 Find your passion
One of the best ways to make a difference is to figure out what issues interest you most, says Mary Peterson, PhD, a psychology professor at George Fox University.
"It's about knowing what is meaningful and what you value," she says. "Those are the areas you're going to be willing to take leadership roles in, and that's going to be your sweet spot for advocacy."
Tucker agrees, noting that much of his interest in psychology is around overcoming the stigma of mental health treatment that is particularly common in rural communities.
"When I first started with advocacy, I had more of a sense of advocating for our clients and advocating for social justice issues, which I take part in through the Iowa Psychological Association, but we also advocate for the profession itself and make sure that psychology has a voice," Tucker says.
Through his efforts at the state level, such as coordinating a legislative breakfast, Tucker advocated for provisional psychologist licensure in the state, a measure that passed earlier this year. Since he hopes to practice in the state after completing his doctorate, he'll now be able to bill for his services before becoming fully licensed.
"That was something that was really cool to be a part of from the beginning," he says.
#6 Be patient
It often takes a long time to see the results of your efforts when it comes to advocacy work, says Esbitt, who was involved in helping get mental health parity passed in the state of New York in 2006.
"It took 10 years of ongoing work to get it passed in New York, so one of the things I really learned was that it often takes a consistent effort over and over again to make a change, but change can happen," she says.
It's a message that most psychology graduate students are likely already familiar with.
"Doctoral candidates often have the perseverance and the long-term viewpoints to make excellent advocates," she says.