100% agree. Anyone want to draft a boycott letter to the APA up? See how many psychologists we can get to sign it?
You would have my signature. This doesn't seem too bad of an idea. On a related note, I recently had an email exchange with an APA rep after I stated that I wasn't going to APA this year while it was being sponsored by NOVA and Argosy. This is the response I got:
The APA rep's response to my initial email:
"Dear -------------,
Thank you for expressing your concerns. I want to assure you that the APA Commission on Accreditation (APA-COA) is a self-supporting unit within the APA; the fees charged by the APA-CoA for accreditation are used exclusively to support the program accreditation process. Moreover, APA-CoA's decision-making regarding programs seeking initial or continuing accreditation is solely within the purview of the Commission and all policy regarding accreditation is formulated by the APA-CoA. There has been, and continues to be, a firewall between APA as a membership organization and the decision-making activities of the Commission on Accreditation.
APA also shares you concern about the internship imbalance and has committed up to $3 million to facilitating the development of new accredited internships. In addition, APA's federal advocacy program, in which students participate, has resulted in over $35 million in grants to training programs. There are multiple other initiatives underway as well.
Concerning the Association's advertising and convention sponsorship policies, this has been formally addressed in that APA policy limits advertising and/or sponsorship opportunities to accredited programs only if the program is in the area of clinical, counseling or school psychology. Programs in other areas of psychology may advertise. For your information the revenue generated by convention ads and/or sponsorships is less than 5% of the total convention budget; it is not used to support the accreditation program.
To the extent that others share your concerns, I also want to note that policy formation can be initiated through representatives to the APA Council of Representatives or one of APA's governance groups. I hope this is responsive to your inquiry.
Sincerely,
Cynthia"
My Response:
"Hi Cynthia,
I appreciate your thorough response, and I thank you for your time in responding. I am pleased to see a lot of the steps that APA has taken to resolve the internship crisis, with the formation of this new task force, things have modestly improved. I also understand the need for the division between APA and the Commission on Accreditation.
My main concerns are these:
1. There has been a steady increase in newly minted psychologists, which appears to be only increasing (I am basing this off of the data on the APPIC website)
2. This steady increase appears to be the largest contributing factor in the internship crisis
3. The internship crisis is part of a larger problem, i.e., an increased supply of psychologists, and a decreased demand. In other words, if you create 1000 new internship positions, you still will have issues with a lack of post-docs and jobs. Thus, the internship squeeze is better than a post-doc squeeze, etc.
Although I have seen APA discuss this issue, I have yet to see proposed solutions that effectively and comprehensively address these issues, particularly with the supply side of things. As you mentioned earlier, this may not be possible with the way the accreditation system works, in which case I think there needs to be an overhaul or a restructuring of that system. If universities can't consistently match their students with accredited internships, then that should be grounds for losing accreditation or being place on probation, etc. The universities should share some of this burden, as opposed to it being placed solely on students. The American Medical Association seems better able to deal with this type of issue, and I think we would benefit from modeling our program development from them.
I apologize if my ADD is flaring up and I missed something here. Again, I appreciate your earlier response, and my main point in writing was to express the concerns that I hear from listserv and early career members to someone within the APA. Thanks again.
-----------"
Her response:
"Yes, clearly understood. Actually the accreditation guidelines ARE under review, and just finished two periods of public comment in which these kinds of view could find expression (according to how accreditation policy is formulated). There will definitely be other opportunities, as their first draft will also go out for public comment, and I encourage you and your colleagues to participate actively in this process.
The other need is for APA to complete a workforce analysis the can inform E&T institutions. Keep asking for it!
Cynthia"