Many of you have known me for at least a decade, if not two. You know I am committed to responsible, researched-based telehealth, and that I am an advocate and developer of telehealth training.
Affordable Care Act
While technology is at the forefront of growth worldwide, mental health care technology lags behind. We look around and see that technology is shaping the very core of how our patients and clients interact with each other -- and with us. We as a group are reactive, not proactive. We lack information about how to organize the tremendous support the Affordable Care Act has created for technology to reduce health care expenditures.
Opportunities Await Us
Our current efforts are not enough. If we are to address the largely behavioral health issues recognized as the most expensive health care problems remaining in the Western world (e.g., obesity, smoking cessation, insomnia, stress management, exercise), we're going to need technological tools that have not yet been developed.
Who will develop them if not us?
We do not yet have a strong, central organization where we can galvanize our efforts in a way that is unfettered by other areas of focus, such as media, rehab, education to name just a few. None of our large professional associations have given us a home that is of interest to the many behavioral specialists who have left their identifies as psychologists, social workers and counselors to seek broader horizons in technological fields.
Let's do more than share email. Let's grow our disciplines with technology and imbue them with our values, rather than waiting for other disciplines to do it for us.
How to Start?
Consider signing the petition linked below to help create a new Society for Technology and Psychology division at the American Psychological Association. This division will serve as a much needed focal point for APA members interested in technological issues. It will seek collaboration with outside health and non-health-related disciplines to develop interprofessional agendas that will bring benefits to us as practitioners, and to those whom we serve.
Our interests include but are not limited to: telepsychology, online therapy, telecounseling, telemental health and telehealth, social media, virtual reality, robotics, informatics, and mHealth or mobile applications. Although other APA divisions have interests in technology, none are as broad in perspective or as focused on its application to psychological practice.
We aim to be a center for professionals who not only talk about using technology, but create it for our disciplines. We aim to be a home base for psychologists and other practitioners who seek a group with which to build a bold future through technology for themselves, their clients/patients and for our professions.
If you are a full Member or Fellow of the APA, please show your support by signing our petition using one of the methods below:
1. Visit and login at the APA website http://forms.apa.org/division/petition/technology/ and sign the petition online. Or download and print a copy of the petition at https://www.box.com/s/72eiw0sprcd0dgn11q2z sign and fax or mail it as described in #2 below.
2. Print then sign the attached petition and fax or mail it to Sarah Jordan at APA Division Services: (202) 218-3599, or 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC. 20002-4242.
To receive news and updates about the planned division, join us online at:
LinkedIn: http://tinyurl.com/c6h45nm
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ceqr64x
Proposed Division Website: http://www.stp-apa.net
Please forward this email to all potentially interested parties. Thank you.
Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D.
Interim President
Proposed Society for Technology and Psychology
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