APA still hasn’t told APA members something

On August 24th I wrote a blog post entitled “Can you trust APA to be your source for psychology news?” At that time APA still hadn’t published any news about how the VA, one of the largest employers of psychologists, can now hire some psychologists who didn’t have APA-accredited internships (if they’ve obtained ABPP). I first wrote about that on my blog on June 24th in the post “Some welcome changes in how the VA hires psychologists.”

I just received my copy of the October, 2016 APA Monitor and there still hasn’t been an article published about this change which could be a significant help for some psychologists. This is despite the fact that even the National Psychologist, a publication that only comes out every other month, has already printed an article about it.

This is perhaps made worse by the fact that the VA itself isn’t going around sending out press releases.

I also went to USA Jobs and found advertisements for VA psychologists which used the old wording related to requirements and did not mention the ability for psychologists who didn’t have an APA-accredited internship to apply if they had obtained ABPP.

I did find some VA job listings that included a statement like this one, however:

“or

Completion of an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (NOTE: Once board certified, the employee is required to maintain board certification.)”

When will the APA tell psychologists who didn’t have APA-accredited internships who might like to work at the VA that they can apply now if they have obtained ABPP or that they may wish to obtain ABPP so that they can apply?

I wonder why APA has failed to mention a relatively important piece of news to APA members?