Section Updates
(published in TCP December 2015)
Section 2: Society of Clinical Geropsychology
By Michele J. Karel, PhD
The Society of Clinical Geropsychology (SCG) has several updates, regarding our 2015 award winners, outgoing presidential initiative, incoming presidential initiative, and new diversity awards for our section.
SCG Awards. At the APA convention in August, SCG recognized our three major awardees this year.
- Powell Lawton Award for Distinguished Contributions to Clinical Geropsychology: Dr. Gregory Hinrichsen, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY. Dr. Hinrichsen has influenced the field of geropsychology through multiple leadership, clinical, training, research, and service activities. A small sampling includes: Research and professional training in Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) for late life depression; contributions to geropsychology training model, competencies, and training leadership; extensive writing on public policy and aging; past-president of SCG, past-Chair of APA Committee on Aging (CONA), past-Chair of Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs (CoPGTP). He will deliver the Lawton Award address at the 2016 convention.
- Distinguished Clinical Mentorship Award: Brian Carpenter, Washington University, St. Louis. Dr. Carpenter is an Associate Professor of Psychology and is beloved by his current and former students, who wrote many letters in support of this award. Dr. Carpenter’s research focuses on family relationships in late life, with a particular emphasis on collaborative family communication and decision-making.
- Student Paper Award: Kellye Carver, doctoral student at the University of North Texas, Counseling Psychology program, for her paper “Influence of Grief among Parentally Bereaved Adults.” Congratulations Kellye!
Presidential Initiative, Outgoing: SCG thanks Dr. Margie Norris for her phenomenal leadership as 2015 SCG President. Dr. Norris’ presidential initiative this year focused on a review of the Society’s history, to help inform future planning. She undertook a detailed study of SCG newsletters since the Section’s founding in 1994. Her presidential address at the APA convention, The Aging of Society of Clinical Geropsychology: Where Have we Been and Where are we Going (featured in the SCG Fall 2015 newsletter), summarized the results of this review and related recommendations for the Society.
Presidential Initiative, Incoming: Dr. Sherry Beaudreau, Co-Director of the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at the Palo Alto VA, and Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University, will begin her terms as SGC President in January 2016. Her presidential initiative will focus on the fundamental role of diversity in ensuring the strength of geropsychology as a field, and of SCG as a society. Concurrent with this initiative is the initiation of SCG’s first Gerodiversity Awards.
SCG Gerodiveristy Awards and Survey. The SCG Diversity Committee recently announced two Gerodiversity awards, to acknowledge outstanding contributions to advance gerodiversity issues in clinical practice, training, research, advocacy, and/or public policy. One award is for psychologists and one for psychologists-in-training. Initial awards will be made in the spring of 2016. In addition, the Diversity committee spearheaded a membership survey regarding diversity of our membership; results are pending.
Finally, I want to express my gratitude for having the opportunity to serve as the Section 2 representative to the SCP Board. It has been a terrific experience and I have enjoyed providing updates in this forum.
Dr. Victor Molinari will take over as Section 2 representative starting in January. He is a professor at the School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida., where he studies mental health outcomes in long term care settings, among other clinical geropsychology interests. He is currently Chair of the Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs (CoPGTP) and President of the American Board of Geropsychology (ABGERO).
SCG Website: For more information about SCG, including membership application, see www.geropsychology.org.
GeroCentral: The “GeroCentral” website is on-line at http://gerocentral.org/. GeroCentral is a website clearinghouse of practice and training resources related to psychology practice with older adults.
Section VII: Section for Clinical Emergencies and Crises
by Marc Hillbrand, PhD
Since its inception, Section VII has promoted the enhancement of graduate education in violence and suicide risk assessment and management. In collaboration with the Palo Alto University Clinical Emergencies and Crises Research Group led by Bruce Bongar, Ph.D., Section VII has recently presented comments to the APA Committee on Accreditation in response to the call for comments issued by the COA on new Implementing Regulations in the training for graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology and other applied psychological specialties. We hope these efforts will lead to expanded opportunities for training in graduate programs and during internships and post-doctoral training programs.
Sadly, the Convention hours allotted to the Sections of the Society of Clinical Psychology for the APA 2016 Convention have yet again been cut. Section VII will use its limited Convention time to address the issue of graduate education in violence and suicide risk assessment and management.
Section 10: Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists
by Board of Division 12 Section 10
Hello graduate students and early career psychologists,
We are writing to announce an upcoming change in the membership policy for Section 10. Beginning January 1, 2016, all members will need to formally register via our website and pay a small annual fee of $10. For those who register for both Division 12 and Section 10 at the same time (https://www.div12.org/membership/), the Section fee will be reduced to $5. While we wish we could continue to operate without membership dues, this nominal fee is critical to our ability to sustain the Section going forward.
We hope that you will consider the many benefits of Section membership as you decide whether to renew:
- Awards: apply for cash prize competitions for best poster and best paper presentation at the Annual Convention
- Mentorship: participate as a mentor or mentee in our mentorship program
- Publications: gain a publication by contributing a brief article to our blog, and enjoy reading what others have published on issues relevant to you
- Internship resources: tap into our network of early career psychologists who have recently completed internships across the country, via an internship database and interview question bank that are currently in development
- Leadership: run for a position on the Board or pilot a new project
- Listserv: gain access to announcements that advertise professional opportunities
- Convention programming: attend symposia that we have designed specifically for graduate students and early career psychologists
We value your participation in the Section and welcome new ideas about how to improve. Please share your suggestions with us directly in the registration form or contact President-Elect Alexandra Greenfield at apg54@drexel.edu. Remember to register by January 1, 2016, at which point our listserv announcements will only be sent to paid members.
Section 3: Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology
by Mitch Prinstein, PhD * Note. This update does not appear in TCP
Students: the call for abstracts for the 2016 Association for Psychological Science is now open! APS will be held in Chicago from May 26-29th and we would love to see you and your data there! SSCP mentors, please let your students know about the perks of SSCP student membership and this poster competition.
Multiple $200 and $100 awards will be given for the winners and distinguished contributions after posters are presented to SSCP member judgess. If you would like to have your poster considered for the SSCP student poster session, select ‘SSCP Poster’ in the first step after you select poster and start new submission.
To be eligible to submit an SSCP poster, the first author of the poster must be a student and must be a member of SSCP at the time of submission. Submissions to the SSCP student poster session must be completed by January 31. You will also be asked to provide a copy of the final version of your poster by May 13, 2016 so judges will have an opportunity to review your work before the live session.
The SSCP poster submission can deal with any area within scientific clinical psychology (e.g., the etiology or correlates of psychopathology, assessment/diagnosis, clinical judgment, psychiatric classification, psychotherapy process or outcome, prevention, psychopharmacology). The research and analyses presented in the poster submission must be completed (i.e., submissions containing such language as “Data will be collected….” will not be considered). Please be sure to provide enough relevant detail in the summary so that reviewers can adequately judge the originality of the study, the soundness of the theoretical rationale and design, the quality of the analyses, the appropriateness of the conclusions, and so on. Complete submissions include a brief 50 word abstract and up to a 500 word summary of the work.
If you have any questions please contact Thomas Olino at thomas.olino@temple.edu. Please put “SSCP Poster” in the Subject line to ensure your question is answered promptly.
Also, SSCP faculty members who will be attending APS this year in NYC, we will be asking for volunteer judges for the competition. Students really enjoy their experiences meeting with you! Please consider serving as a judge. There are often many posters to visit, so the more the merrier!