PUBLIC POLICY AND ADVOCACY La Clinica del Pueblo in DC helped painted a broader picture by providing community-level data and shared anecdotal experiences in working with incarcerated populations as well as the impact the current immigration debate has been in working with undocumented, high-risk populations. Daniel Dawes of the American Psychological Association and Esther Garcia of Healthcare for America Now, two of the Federation’s National Partners then delineated the collaborative effort to ensure that all Health disparities – Access to Healthcare, Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Care, Transportation and others, become part of the Administrations’ overall National Healthcare Reform plans.
Graduate Psychology Education Program Authorizing Bills Introduced in U.S. Senate & House The APA Education Government Relations Office is pleased to announce that legislation specifically authorizing the Graduate Psychology Education program (GPE) has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. GPE is the nation’s only federal program solely dedicated to psychology education and training. Since its inception, there have been 70 grants in 30 states, including the District of Columbia, for a total of almost $24 million. The Senate Bill (S. 811) was introduced on April 2nd by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and the House Bill (H.R. 2066) was introduced on April 23rd by Reps. Gene Green (D-TX) and Tim Murphy (R-PA). The program has been funded under a general authority out of the Bureau of Health Professions in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Passage of S.811 and H.R. 2066 would amend the Public Health Service Act and enact into law the establishment of the GPE Program, thus securing federal support for graduate psychology education and training (i.e., the GPE Program would have its own line item for funding within the HHS annual federal budget). It would allow and ensure that the Secretary of HHS is able to award grants, cooperative agreements and contracts to accredited doctoral, internship and residency programs in psychology for the development and implementation of programs to provide interdisciplinary training in integrated health care settings to students in doctoral psychology programs with a focus on the needs of underserved populations.
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