We entrust our legislative lobbyists, hired after careful due diligence by the IPA Executive Committee and IPA Council to help us pursue policy established by the IPA. Legislative meetings, hearings, and any other legislative action may or may not be announced publicly. The IPA leadership and the IPA lobbyists will make strategic decisions about appropriate times for public announcements. If individual IPA members disagree with IPA policy, they can take personal action as they so choose. The result of all legislative initiatives has been and will continue to be announced to the IPA membership in the various communication modalities described above.
IPA RxP Intiative FAQ Summary
In summary, the issue of prescription privileges has been discussed at open monthly Legislative Committee meetings as posted in the quarterly newsletter sent to all IPA members. The results of the Committee meetings are brought to Council for discussion and vote. Elected IPA officers then pursue Council objectives based upon the results of any votes. As far back as 1991 there have been discussions, motions, and votes to pursue prescription privileges in Illinois at Quarterly Council meetings, in quarterly newsletters and, since at least 2006, at every All- Association meeting. All IPA meetings are open to any IPA member and dates and times are posted in the newsletter. Given the track record of psychologists who have attained prescriptive authority in other states and/or through employment in Federal agencies or in the Federal government, liability and insurance rates have not been at all adversely affected. In 2011 and 2012 prescription privileges have, as voted for by Council, been pursued with funding outside of typical IPA revenue streams and as such have been funded, either by a grant from APA or in specific funds raised by IPA leadership by outside contributions specifically earmarked for this purpose. Once the legislative agenda has been approved by the IPA Council, the IPA legislative agenda will be pursued aggressively by the IPA and its lobbyists.
Beth N. Rom-Rymer, Ph.D.
IPA President
Bruce E. Bonecutter, Ph.D.
Past IPA President
Past IPA Representative to APA Council
IPA Parliamentarian
Terrence Koller, Ph.D., ABPP
Past IPA President
IPA Executive Director
Steven Rothke, Ph.D., ABPP
Past IPA President
Chair, IPA Consulting Section
Chair, IPA By-Laws Committee
And in consultation with the following IPA officers:
Armand Cerbone, Ph.D.
IPA Past President
IPA Representative to APA Council
Randy Georgemiller, Ph.D.
IPA Past President
IPA Representative to APA Council
Blaine Lesnik, Psy.D.
IPA Membership Chair
Patricia Pimental, Psy.D., ABPN
IPA Past President
Chair, IPA Legislative Committee
Bob Rinaldi, Ph.D.
Chair, IPA RxP Subcommittee
Greg Sarlo, Ph.D.
IPA Immediate Past President
Joseph Troiani, Ph.D.
IPA Treasurer
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Thank you for your interest in joining the Illinois Psychological Association. With increasing pressure from all fronts attempting to lower the quality of mental health services and reduce funding for research, it is now more important than ever before that we remain organized. We must also move the profession forward so that psychologists are able to provide the full scope of services their extensive training allows. We know that the pressures of your work as a psychologist severely limit the time you can personally devote to advocacy. The IPA exists to ensure that someone is there looking out for you so that you can devote all your energy to your own work. The IPA is the only and largest (over 1400 members) organization in the state that represents you where you need it most at the local level.
As an IPA member you have access to the Member’s only section of this Website that includes information that will help you with your practice. You are also eligible to join our listserv where you can get immediate answers to your questions from fellow listserv members. As an IPA member you can also make use of our phone consultation service with our Director of Professional Affairs as well as access to consultation from members of our Ethics Committee. If you choose to use our placement services, IPA members are also given exclusive access to job listings as soon as they come in. Finally, IPA members benefit from discounts to our annual convention and continuing education programs.
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IPA Membership Application Form – PDF Version
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The Illinois Psychologist
Winter 2012 - Vol. XL, No.3
Handbooks
Determination of Capacity of Older Adults in Guardianship Hearings
The Illinois Psychologist
Fall 2011 Vol XL No. 2
Information Shared or Exchanged During the Course of a 604(b) Evaluation
Memo from the Lawfirm of Whitted, Cleary and Takiff, L.L.C.
Guidelines for the Practice of Parenting Coordination
These guidelines are designed to address the developing area of practice known as parenting coordination. In response to the recognition by family courts and substantial evidence in the empirical and clinical literature that divorce does not end patterns of high parental conflict for some families (Garrity & Baris, 1994; Hetherington, 1999; Johnston, 1994; Maccoby & Mnookin, 1992; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980), parenting coordination interventions began to be developed more than two decades ago. In the past decade, parenting coordination work has expanded across states and jurisdictions (Kirkland, 2008; Kirkland & Sullivan, 2008).
The course of the divorce process is commonly one of heightened anger and conflict, anxiety, diminished communication, and sadness or depression for one or both partners. These negative emotions are often accelerated by the separation and the adversarial nature of the divorce process. Although the majority of parents significantly diminish their anger and conflict in the first two to three years following divorce, between 8% and 15% continue to engage in conflict in the years following divorce, with little reduction in intensity of their feelings (Deutsch & Pruett, 2009; Hetherington, 1999; Hetherington & Kelly, 2002; Johnston, Roseby, & Kuehnle, 2009; Kelly, 2000, 2003; Maccoby & Mnookin, 1992; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980).
Generally, this relatively small group of parents is not able to settle their child-related disputes in custody mediation, through lawyer-assisted negotiations, or on their own. They turn to litigation in the years following separation and divorce to settle these disputes and utilize disproportionate resources and time of the courts. They are more likely to have significant psychological problems, which may interfere with their parenting, and they more often expose their children to intense conflict and intimate partner violence, also commonly referred to as domestic violence (Johnston et al., 2009). As the negative impacts of continued high conflict on children became well established in the empirical and clinical literature (Clarke-Stewart & Brentano, 2006; Deutsch & Pruett, 2009; Emery, 1999; Grych, 2005; Hetherington, 1999; Johnston et al., 2009), family court judges, divorce intervention researchers, and psychologists practicing in the divorce and family area explored alternative interventions that would diminish the use of the adversarial process to resolve child-related disputes and deal effectively with these parents to reduce the conflict to which children were exposed (e.g., Cookston, Braver, Griffin, deLuse ́, & Miles, 2007; Cowan, Cowan, Pruett, & Pruett, 2007; Emery, Kitzman, & Waldron, 1999; Henry, Fieldstone, & Bohac, 2009; Johnston, 2000; Kelly, 2002, 2004; Pruett & Barker, 2009; Pruett & Johnston, 2004; Sandler, Miles, Cookston, & Braver, 2008; Wolchik, Sandler, Winslow, & Smith-Daniels, 2005).
Parenting coordination began gaining recognition in the 1990s as a result of presentations and trainings first offered at conferences, such as those of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and by experienced parenting coordinators (PCs). Initially, there were variations in role, source and degree of authority, and practice in different jurisdictions, and different titles were used to describe this innovative intervention model, including special masters, coparenting facilitators, or mediator/arbitrators. In 2003, AFCC appointed an interdisciplinary task force to develop guidelines for parenting coordination to guide mental health professionals, mediators, and lawyers with respect to training, practice, and ethics (AFCC Task Force on Parenting Coordination, 2006).
The complex and hybrid parenting coordination model continues to be refined in professional deliberations about the role, emerging statutes and case law, and court and local rules and regulations governing parenting coordination practice at the local jurisdictional level. These American Psychological Association (APA) “Guidelines for the Practice of Parenting Coordination” are intended to provide a specific framework and direction for psychologists for professional conduct and decision making in the practice of parenting coordination. Although designed for psychologists, many aspects of these guidelines may be relevant to other professionals as well.
The literature reviewed in drafting these guidelines was selected by the members of the APA Task Force for the Development of Parenting Coordination Guidelines to include the most seminal, relevant, and recent publications
Guidelines for the Evaluation of Dementia and Age-Related Cognitive Decline
Dementia in its many forms is a leading cause of functional limitation among older adults worldwide and will continue to ascend in global health importance as populations continue to age and effective cures remain elusive (Mathers & Loncar, 2006). Plassman et al. (2007) estimated that over 2.5 million Americans suffered from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and that nearly 4 million had that and other forms of dementia in 2002. Given expected increases in the size of the older adult population, those numbers are expected to increase strikingly by 2050 (Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
The following guidelines were developed for psychologists who perform evaluations of dementia and agerelated cognitive change. These guidelines conform to the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (APA, 2002). The term guidelines refers to statements that suggest or recommend specific professional behavior, endeavors, or conduct for psychologists. Guidelines differ from standards in that standards are mandatory and may be accompanied by an enforcement mechanism. Guidelines are aspirational in intent. They are intended to facilitate the continued systematic development of the profession and to help facilitate a high level of practice by psychologists. Guidelines are not intended to be mandatory or exhaustive and may not be applicable to every professional situation. They are not definitive, and they are not intended to take precedence over the judgment of psychologists.
Guidelines on this topic were originally developed by an APA Presidential Task Force, approved as policy of APA by the APA Council of Representatives, and published in 1998 (APA Presidential Task Force on the Assessment of Age-Consistent Memory Decline and Dementia, 1998). Consistent with APA standards, these guidelines were subject to sunset or review in 2008. The Board of Professional Affairs and the Committee on Professional Practice and Standards conducted an initial review and determined that the guidelines should not be sunset and that revision was appropriate. The APA Committee on Aging empanelled a group of experts who reviewed and deemed appropriate the maintenance of these guidelines with appropriate revision and updating. The introduction to the original guidelines remains pertinent today:
Psychologists can play a leading role in the evaluation of the memory complaints and changes in cognitive functioning that frequently occur in the later decades of life. Although some healthy aging persons maintain very high cognitive performance levels throughout life, most older people will experience a decline in certain cognitive abilities. This decline is usually not pathological, but rather parallels a number of common decreases in physiological function that occur in conjunction with normal developmental processes. For some older persons, however, declines go beyond what may be considered normal and are relentlessly progressive, robbing them of their memories, intellect, and eventually their abilities to recognize spouses or children, maintain basic personal hy-giene, or even utter comprehensible speech. These more malignant forms of cognitive deterioration are caused by a variety of neuropathological conditions and dementing diseases.
Psychologists are uniquely equipped by training, expertise, and the use of specialized neuropsychological tests to assess changes in memory and cognitive functioning and to distinguish normal changes from early signs of pathology. . . . Neuropsychological evaluation and cognitive testing remain the most effective differential diagnostic methods in discriminating pathophysiological dementia from age-related cognitive decline, cognitive difficulties that are depression related, and other related disorders. Even after reliable biological markers have been discovered, neuropsychological evaluation and cognitive testing will still be necessary to determine the onset of dementia, the functional expression of the disease process, the rate of decline, the functional capacities of the individual, and hopefully, response to therapies. . . .
These guidelines, however, are intended to specify for all clinicians the appropriate cautions and concerns that are specific to the assessment of dementia and age-related cognitive decline. These guidelines are aspirational in intent and are neither mandatory nor exhaustive. . . . The goal of the guidelines is to promote proficiency and expertise in assessing dementia and age-related cognitive decline in clinical practice. They may not be applicable in certain circumstances, such as some experimental or clinical research projects or some forensic evaluations. (APA Presidential Task Force on the Assessment of Age-Consistent Memory Decline and Dementia, 1998, p. 1298)