An EVeryone APA

An "everyone APA" engages all members, staff, key partners, and stakeholders.  This call is meant to build on our recent years' focus on building inclusion and belonging among our members and join this effort with a focus on growing connections around our common goals.  

We must work to be relevant to our scientists, applied psychologists, and educators while remaining relevant to our practitioners.  

In aftermath of the 2023 SCOTUS decision on race-conscious admissions and the likely precednt it set, access and entry to our field are the most critical issues impacting ethnic minority, multicultural, diversity, and justice concerns in psychology.  We cannot back pedal on our progress and we cannot let our partners in universities, hospital systems, and corporate America revert to ignoring the consquences of systemic and structural racism.  An "everyone APA" is an Association that remains steadfast in its committmetn to taking every action it can to promote racial equity and diversity in our field and in our work.

(Eric says ... ) I'm a gay man.  I understand the assault on the LGBT+ community personally, not just as a psychologist.  I'm also a healthcare administrator in a large pediatric health system.  I know first hand the "political football" that our youth are right now when it comes to trans health and mental health care services.  At no other time in my adult life (post 1990) have we been under great assault for our right to live, work, and love.  We need APA's bullhorn so that we can speak up against the attack on the LGBT+ people and families when it is unsafe for others to use their voice, power, or influence. An "everyONE APA" stands up for LGBT_ members and our work with LGBT+ clients, patients, and youth.

The health of any society is reflected in the success of their women and girls.  Focusing on growing a movement for population health, we must work tirelessly toward improving the status of women in our nation and globally. A focus on population health is necessary for promoting women’s health and overall status. When women are educated, fully employed at the top of their scope, earning equitable wages, and have access to all healthcare services (including all reproductive healthcare services), children and families flourish, economies thrive, and society is more civil and healthier. 

Dr. Butter would set as a 3 year goal to double the number of APA members who identify as scientists. This is a big, hairy audacious goal. It is a “moon shot”, aspirational goal that may be hard to achieve. However, we will never achieve a goal we do not set. Some situations call for an unreasonable expectation to motivate new ideas and a committed focus.  Psychological science is the bedrock of everything we have achieved and all of our future successes will also rest upon and be connected to our science. Every ONE of our members (including educators, scientists, and applied psychologists) need to be engaged  by APA on the issues that matter to them.

Our practicing psychologists are central to our success of leading a population health movement.   While psychological conditions have increased, access to high quality care has not. So many people go without a diagnosis or treatment. When people do find someone who can help them, most wait much too long to see a psychologist. Once in treatment, our track record for keeping people in treatment and benefiting from intervention is not great. So much of our practice remains under-informed by our science and too many applied psychologists are under-valued or not invited for their contributions. APA is positioned to answer America’s call for help, but it will require that we change how we see ourselves as psychologists.  We need to support the business and practice of psychology and independent providers.  We will need all providers in our population health movement to reach the community level factors and access we seek.

An "everyONE APA" includes our students. Expanding our health service models to include psychology trained technicians, mid-level Master's preppared providers, and MORE (not fewer) doctoral prepared providers is crucial to our success in leading a population health movemetn.  Attending to equitable access, affordable and debt-free graduate training is the key issue to our success.  Additionally, recognizing that our students have "adult" needs such as child care, elder care, flexibility in our training programs, scholarships, loan repayment options, and diverse work place opportunities are all psychology professional-wide issues we must attend to for  our students.