American Psychological Association Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology)
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(Mss. 4745)
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Neuropsychology Synarchy (CNS), a group comprised of representatives
of the major national organizations in clinical neuropsychology. CNS is
a small, informal group that meets regularly to discuss issues of common
concern to the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN), the
American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN), the Association for
Doctoral Education in Clinical Neuropsychology ADECN), the Association
of Internship Training in Clinical Neuropsychology (AITCN), the Association
of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN), Division
40 of the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Academy
of Neuropsychology (NAN).
During the latter part of 1996, the members of CNS proposed a
conference to their respective organizations that would be designed to
develop an integrated training model for clinical neuropsychology and which
would be similar to the earlier psychology training conferences described
above. All the organizations with funding voted to sponsor the conference.
ADECN and AITCN were not in a position to provide sponsorship at that time.
A planning committee was formed by CNS from the individuals present at
those discussions and secured additional sponsorship from the Board of
Educational affairs (BEA) of APA. The University of Houston offered to
host the conference at the beginning of September, 1997. The University
of Houston was also the single largest, as well as the majority, financial
sponsor. Corporate sponsorship was provided by The Psychological Corporation
and Swets & Zeitlinger publishing company.
In 1997, the planning committee met in Chicago in January and
May, in Houston in July, and again in Chicago in August to make preparations
for the meeting. Delegates were selected at the July meeting. Because of
financial constraints, delegates were expected to bear the expense or find
funding for travel, lodging, and evening meals. Breakfasts and lunches
were supplied by the sponsors so that no time would be wasted getting delegates
together in the morning and reassembling after lunch. Refreshments were
also supplied at short morning
and afternoon breaks. Funding from the sponsors was used to cover the
many other expenses of the conference.
PREPARATORY MATERIALS
H. Julia Hannay
Prior to the conference, background materials were prepared for all of
the delegates, recorders, observers, and planning committee members. These
materials were sent in a binder to everyone 2 weeks before the conference.
The following materials were included: (a) a cover letter that asked participants
to be well versed in the materials provided, outlined the materials, and
briefly described the format of the conference, (b) a list of delegates,
their addresses, telephone, and fax numbers, (c) the outline of the major
issues to be discussed at the conference, (d) the Annual Report of the
Committee on Accreditation (American Psychological Association, 1996b),
(e) the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional
Psychology and the Accreditation Operating Procedures of the Committee
on Accreditation (American Psychological Association, 1996a), (f) the Report
of the Division 40 Task Force on Education, Accreditation, and Credentialing
(Crosson, Craig Cripe, DeLuca, Koffler, Mathew, Naugle, Perrine, &
Tucker, 1995), (g) the text portion of the Division 40 Petition for the
Recognition of a Specialty in Professional Psychology (Meier et al., 1995),
(h) a draft of the document merging Postdoctoral Residency Standards of
APA and the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology
(APPCN, 1997), (i) the recent chapter by Manfred J. Meier entitled "The
Establishment of Clinical Neuropsychology as a Specialty" (Meier, 1997),
(j) data from the unpublished survey of National Academy of Neuropsychology
(NAN) members and other sources used by Sandra Koffler in her NAN presidential
address (Koffler, 1995) and an APA talk (Koffler, 1996), (k) data from
a workshop on teaching neuropsychology given at an International Neuropsychological
Society meeting (Hannay, 1996), (l) letters from clinical neuropsychologists
around the country, giving their opinions on various issues to be discussed,
(m) several articles published in The Clinical Neuropsychologist (Sweet
& Moberg, 1990; Sweet, Moberg, & Westergaard, 1996; Sweet, Westergaard,
& Moberg, 1995) and the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology (Guilmette,
Faust, Hart, & Arkes, 1990), which provide surveys of the practices
of clinical neuropsychologists, and (n) the TCN Guide to Professional Practice
in Clinical Neuropsychology (Adams & Rourke, 1992). When the delegates
arrived at registration, they were given additional materials including:
(o) the conference schedule, (p) a recent article on need for additional
training guidelines also published in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
(Johnstone & Farmer, 1997) and (q) new survey data on internship practices
collected by the Association of Internship Training in Clinical Neuropsychology
(1997). The materials provided to the participants are listed in Appendix
A, Preparatory Materials.
DELEGATE SELECTION
Linas Bieliauskas and Kerry des Harnsher
The planning, committee designated by the Clinical Neuropsychology Synarchy
(CNS) included representatives of all the organizations within the CNS.
The committee consisted of H. Julia Hanna (Chair; Association for Doctoral
Education in Clinical Neuropsychology). Linas Bieliauskas (American Academy
of Clinical Neuropsychology), Bruce A. Crosson (Division 40 of the American
Psychological Association), Kerry des Hamsher (American Board of
Clinical Neuropsychology), Thomas A. Harnmeke (Association of Postdoctoral
Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology), and Sandra Koffler (Association
of Internship Training in Clinical Neuropsychology and National Academy
of Neuropsychology). The Houston Conference on Specialty Education and
Training in Clinical Neuropsychology was planned for September 3-7, 1997.
It was decided to plan the conference according to the format so successfully
followed in the previous conferences (Belar et al., 1989; Belar et al.,
1993). Interested parties in the field would be invited to apply as delegates
to the conference. An announcement of the conference, which invited applications,
was sent to all training programs listed in The Clinical Neuropsychologist
(Cripe, 1995). An announcement also was planned for publication in the
APA Monitor since it was thought that this would have the widest distribution
to psychologists. There was some delay with the Monitor publication of
the announcement and it was not in the form or place that the planning
committee had expected. After some initial concerns were raised about insufficient
circulation of the announcement to interested clinical neuropsychologists,
invitations to apply for delegate status were sent to all members of Division
40 of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Academy
of Neuropsychology (NAN). Altogether, 177 applications were received and
processed.
Six breakout groups were formed in order to promote intensive small
group discussion. The optimal number per working group was determined to
be seven, again in keeping with group size in earlier conferences. Five
financially sponsoring organizations from CNS were invited to send one
delegate. Thirty-seven delegates were then chosen from among the applicants
to fill out the number of 42. The six members of the planning committee
would also be delegates but were not expected to attend the breakout group
sessions and could not vote in them. Indeed, only one breakout group session
was attended by one planning committee member. Planning committee members
could, however, make comments in the large plenary sessions and
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