Under a thousand neuropsychologists?

[NeuroTrope]

OK, misleading title I know. But according to the ABCN website, there are only 907 board-certified neuropsychologists in the United States?

http://www.abpp.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3405

That seems extremely low. I know there are many more who practice without the ABCN title but I was stunned to come across this number. Not sure if that means the demand will outweigh the supply or if the demand is just not that high, but I thought we had more of a presence than that!

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[CogNeuroGuy]

I always thought that was interesting, then again, our field does not require (at least in terms of a federal regulatory body) any formal license or residency to claim to be a neuropsychologist or charge for administering neuropsych. assessments.

Inter-professional wise, you and I know that boarding is important, but not even APA has found a definitive credential to qualify one to be a distinct provider in neuropsychology. In Dallas alone, there are several neuropsychologists, most of them do not have board certification.

 

[WisNeuro]

You need to look at the trend. Many older npsych's did not pursue board cert as it didn't really do anything for them. Nowadays every decent job requires board eligibility and pushed for it, not too mention that in the VA you receive an instant step increase in many places. If you could split these numbers by age, you would see a much higher percentage of people in younger age cohorts boarded when compared to late career npsychs.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The vast majority of neuropsychologists are not boarded, though as was mentioned above it skews to much more senior clinicians. There has been a shift in the past 5 maybe 10 years towards requiring boarding. Even PP jobs that get posted to the various listservs strongly encourage/require someone have or pursue boarding. Thankfully that is where the field is going (at least neuropsych and rehab psych), as most of the rest of psychology seems way to relaxed about standards.

ps. I'm in a large city (top 20) and I can count on two hands the number of neuropsychologists who are active within a 2hr drive in any direction. I'm not sure if there are any local hacks, but we are definitely lucky in that regard. The same cannot be said for CA, NY, FL, etc.

 

[NeuroTrope]

You're right, in California there are a number of people who claim to be neuropsychologists without the proper training. That said, it seems like the ones who actually do have the credentials do quite well here, so it doesn't feel so saturated. I'd be more concerned if I practiced psychotherapy here...

 

[WisNeuro]

Also, if you plan on doing forensic work, you better be boarded.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Be wary of speech therapists, school psychologists, occupational therapists, neurologists and a few other disciplines who are crowding the cognitive evaluation market. I see it with concussion work, as I've gotten "reports" from all sorts of providers. I saw one from a chiropractor the other week….I believe their title was chiropractic neurologist…

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I actually think I remember receiving an email a month or two ago that they'd topped 1,000 (the numbers on that FAQ are from January 2013). So it sounds like they boarded 100+ new folks in a year. Not astounding, but not too shabby, either.

Although yes, there are certainly disparities between the number of folks who call themselves neuropsychologists and/or conduct "neuropsychological evaluations" (largest number), those who have actually had some measure of substantive training in it (fewer), those who are board-eligible and/or can deliver the services competently (fewer still), and those who've completed the boarding process (fewest yet).

Edit: I believe APA recognizes both ABPP-CN and ABN as qualifiers for neuropsychology, though. They just can't really do much to enforce that nationwide.

 

[CogNeuroGuy]

Edit: I believe APA recognizes both ABPP-CN and ABN as qualifiers for neuropsychology, though. They just can't really do much to enforce that nationwide.

Interesting that you bring that up, last week my PI was like "do you guys know of the additional boarding institution for clinical neuropsychologists?" My colleague answered "what other boarding institution?" He simply replied with "good, that is exactly what I want to hear."

 

[erg923]

Interesting that you bring that up, last week my PI was like "do you guys know of the additional boarding institution for clinical neuropsychologists?" My colleague answered "what other boarding institution?" He simply replied with "good, that is exactly what I want to hear."

Functionally speaking, whats the difference?

 

[CogNeuroGuy]

He had mentioned that there had been boarding institutions that traditionally had been coming up and asked for a payment with no other criteria to prove competence, or at least nowhere near ABPP. He then mentioned that now, these institutions have implemented some form of testing/ objective evaluations that have not been standard practice before.

Anyone else have any experience with this?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

They are called "Vanity Boards". There are other legitimate boards out there for other specialities, but in general there is ABPP and everyone else. APN is the neuropsych one that has some support and rigor. I view them as a legitimate credential, though I disagree with pushing it because ABPP already exists and does well for the community. There are of course other politics going on (mostly with the old guard disagreeing on grandfathering and whatnot), so that is my understanding of why APN gained traction.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

They are called "Vanity Boards". There are other legitimate boards out there for other specialities, but in general there is ABPP and everyone else. APN is the neuropsych one that has some support and rigor. I view them as a legitimate credential, though I disagree with pushing it because ABPP already exists and does well for the community. There are of course other politics going on (mostly with the old guard disagreeing on grandfathering and whatnot), so that is my understanding of why APN gained traction.

That's my understanding as well. There was just some disagreement early on between the two boards, although both now require somewhat similar credentials and have a relatively similar process (e.g., work sample review, oral and written exams). But as ABPP has gained the most traction, I feel that it's the one that should continue being pushed as "the" board for neuropsych.