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VOL. 14, NO. 6 ::: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER, 2005

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Welcome to the online home of The National Psychologist, an independent bi-monthly newspaper for behavioral healthcare practitioners. Please take a moment to sign our Guestbook.

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Death of a writer and friend

Ira Polonsky, Ph.D., a frequent contributor to The National Psychologist, was shot and killed Nov. 1 at his offices in Vallejo, Calif. Polonsky was 64. His articles focused on tips for marketing a practice. Details on his death will be carried in the January/February 2006 issue.

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Highlights from the Current Issue:
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Round one: California Board of Psychology
Round two: still in doubt

The California Board of Psychology (BOP) won the battle over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to lump psychologists into a single Board of Mental Health, but the war is still in doubt says Jo Linder-Crow, Ph.D., Executive Director of the California Psychological Association. To read more, subscribe here.

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Reservists’ families get free mental health care

Boston is a moderate sized city compared to giants like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, but two “Beantown” professionals, Kenneth Reich, Ed.D., and Jaine Darwin, Psy.D., have designs on the entire country. To read more, subscribe here.

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California psychologist describes working with Katrina’s victims

Catastrophe often brings out the best and worst in humanity. John Caccavale, Ph.D., saw evidence of both during two weeks tending the mental health needs of evacuees after Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast Aug. 29. To read more, subscribe here.

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AMA restructures CPT testing codes

A new system of coding procedures for psychological testing services slated to begin in January 2006 is likely to result in substantial increases of reimbursement, but only when the psychologist, without assistance from a technician, provides the service, according to James Georgoulakis, Ph.D., APA’s representative to the Relative Update Committee (RUC) of the American Medical Association (AMA). To read more, subscribe here.

Ellis kicked off board of institute he founded

By Richard E. Gill
Assistant Editor
A man who was once proclaimed the second most influential psychologist in the past 100 years has been summarily dumped from the board of the psychotherapy institute he founded nearly a half-century ago.
Albert Ellis, Ph.D., who about 10 years ago was named in an American Psychological Association survey as one of the leading psychologists in the past century, ahead of notables such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, said his attorney Michael de Leeuw, who has filed a lawsuit against the Albert Ellis Institute for reinstatement.

Ohio Psy.D. overcomes challenges in Iraq

By James Bradshaw
Assistant Editor
Kathy Platoni, Psy.D., has left behind the 50-minute hours of private practice in Centerville, Ohio, for a different professional venue – the rugged terrain of Iraq where 100-degree-plus discomfort is regularly punctuated by exploding mortars or roadside “improvised explosive devices.”
“We’re going into our tenth month and we’re hoping to be home by Christmas,” Platoni told The National Psychologist in an interview during an all-too-short September leave back home with her husband, John Hutchinson.

Law enforcement and psychology
make formidable force

By Richard E. Gill
Assistant Editor
    Law Enforcement and psychology are cut from different bolts of cloth, but bonded together they can form a formidable force.
    Before Cedric Alexander, Psy.D., chief of the Rochester, N.Y., Police Department, introduced a program entitled Emotionally Disturbed Persons Response Team (EDPRT), the number of officers and individuals injured when they came in contact was alarming.
    Since its inception that figure has been reduced dramatically, said Alexander, who spent nearly 20 years as a police officer with the Miami-Dade County Police Department before deciding to go back to school. He obtained his doctorate at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

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