Establishing population health as a framework for the United States is critical, and one of the best ways APA and psychologists can make a big impact on population health is through advocacy.
Over the past several years, APA’s Council of Representatives—our association’s legislative body—has transformed the way they work so that their efforts directly relate to the impact they want to see on our discipline and in our society.
Those changes led to a first: More than 40 council members joined APA’s advocacy team to meet with legislators before council’s biannual meeting. The meetings allowed psychologists to speak with lawmakers and staff on Capitol Hill about the issues critical to our field and advancing well-being for our communities. As a former Congressional Fellow with the Women’s Research and Education Institute, I know how direct constituent interactions have a tremendous influence on lawmakers’ decisions on whether to sponsor or vote for a piece of legislation.
[Related: Column: APA helps shape population health approach]
For this event, we discussed recent council resolutions on health equity (PDF, 100KB)opens in new window, child and adolescent health (PDF, 72KB)opens in new window, and adolescent employment (PDF, 136KB)opens in new window. We asked our legislators to:
- Increase funding for the federal Graduate Psychology Education program, which trains health service psychologists in interdisciplinary behavioral health for placement into community-based primary care settings working with underserved populations.
- Sponsor the Youth Mental Health Research Act, a piece of legislation developed by APA Services that authorizes $500 million over 5 years for the creation of a national Youth Mental Health Research Initiative. The initiative aims to guide long-term mental health recovery efforts, better target preventive interventions for those at risk of developing mental health challenges, and improve treatments for children.
- Keep youth safe by increasing funding for child labor violation enforcement efforts.
We must all educate our legislators about the most critical needs of our profession and about the issues we care about. I invite you to spend 10 minutes practicing your advocacy skills. Support APA Services by emailing your federal lawmakers about these and other important issues. Find more information on APA Advocacy Alerts and contacting your member of Congress on the APA Services website.
