APA Practice Leadership Conference

I recently attended the APA Practice Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. along with our Executive Director (Eric Russ), Director of Professional Affairs (Karen Graves), President-Elect (AJ Steele), Board Secretary (Kari Jones), and graduate student, Fei Bi Chan. The Practice Leadership Conference (PLC) brings together psychologists from the United States, territories, and Canada, along with APA governance, to strategize on issues important to practicing psychologists. I want to share some of what was shared at the conference about the present and future of the practice. While you all are likely aware of the increase in need for mental health practitioners – with most having reached capacity, you might not be aware of the factors making this crisis even more alarming. APA’s Chief of Professional Practice, Jared Skillings, spoke about the demand increasing and wait lists lengthening, while the largest generation (Baby Boomers) is retiring. Psychology is a popular path chosen in college – however, there are less people in our population at that age. Psychologist workforce projections highlight insufficient supply to meet unmet need for mental health services. Increasing supply through more graduates and later retirement narrows but does not eliminate the gap between supply and demand. APA CEO, Arthur Evans, reiterated the need for psychologists to impact the social determinants of health and embrace a population health model - Supporting prevention strategies that emphasize early intervention and strengthen communities to address psychosocial factors as part of an overall behavioral health treatment strategy.Another hot topic was the use of digital therapeutics. Vaile Wright, Senior Director of Healthcare Innovation spoke on this topic. Mental health digital therapeutics involve the use of software programs to deliver evidence-based and validated interventions to treat or manage mental and behavioral health disorders, such as chronic insomnia and substance use disorders. They can be used independently or as an adjunct to medications or other therapies to optimize patient care and health outcomes. Digital therapeutics are not typically direct-to-consumer mental health apps you can download on your own. By definition, digital therapeutics meet classification for Software as a Medical Device and, therefore, fall under FDA oversight. The growing mental health digital therapeutics industry is expanding rapidly. These mental health digital therapeutics are based on psychological science, and as such, psychology and psychologists play a critical role in this area and bring clinical and scientific expertise unique to that from physician-based organizations. Learn more here: https://www.apa.org/members/content/digital-therapeutics Finally, I wanted to share some points made by Marnie Shanbhag, Senior Director for Independent Practice. She spoke about trends in independent practice of moving toward electronic medical records, marketing across state lines, use of PSYPACT, and navigating 3rd party payers. She encouraged psychologists to get more comfortable talking about money and the business of practice. One new resource to be aware of is Psychology Connect – a free provider to provider referral network for licensed psychologists: https://connect.nationalregister.org/ I hope you all are finding space for peace and growth in the spring months. If you like to discuss any ideas or have questions about anything KPA, reach out! [email protected]