FREE Membership...

In an effort to boost our membership and as a way to engage early career psychologists in MOPA, the Board recently decided to offer all newly licensed psychologists one year of free membership in MOPA as a way to experience first hand all that our organization does and the great community of people we have here in Missouri.  These members will be given access to our wonderful listserve as well so that they can share in many of the legislative and professional issues that arise on a regular basis that affects the practice of psychology in our state.  After the first year, they will be asked to continue their involvement with MOPA by becoming full members.  Hopefully, this effort will bring more psychologists into our organization and will also broaden the depth and breadth of psychologists that make up our ranks.  If you have other ideas about how  to boost membership, please feel free to comment on this post.  We are always open to new ways to engage more psychologists. 

-Rich

Medicaid and Reimbursement for Neuropsychological Services

I briefly wanted to let the membership know that we are in the very early phases of working on legislation to secure reimbursement for neuropsychological assessment services by Medicaid.  This has the potential to allow those served by Medicaid to receive much needed neuropsychological services and also would allow those who perform this type of testing to be reimbursed properly for their work.  Right now similar legislation exists in a handful of other states - so it can be done - but not without grassroots support form MO psychologists. 

Again, this is in the very early stages, but something that we are working on. If you know anyone who performs neuropsychological assessments in Missouri and who is not a member of MOPA, there is now (more than ever) a direct incentive to become a dues-paying member in order to support this important legalisation.  Updates will be forthcoming on this issue as they unfold. 

Disaster Response Team

Following the disastrous tornado that struck Joplin on May 22, MOPA received calls asking if we had a Disaster Response Team.  While at one point, there was a Chair of our Disaster Response Committee, we had no formal active Chair or members of the committee to heed the call when disaster struck.  At our last Board meeting this became a priority so that we could be better equipped to handle such a situation if it arose again. I am pleased to announce that we now have a Chair of our Disaster Response Committee in Craig Shifrin, Psy.D.  We also have 3 other active MOPA members volunteer their time to the committee that bring to the table extensive experience and training in disaster response (Amongst the members they have developed programs for the UN, received Community Response Team [CERT] training, developed Red Cross training programs, served on local disaster relief committees, responded to Hurricane Katrina, certified by the International Critical Incident Response Stress Foundation in Basic Critical Incident Stress Management, and completed an advanced course in Psychotraumatology for Clinicians).  Some impressive credentials indeed.

It never ceases to amaze me that MOPA has such a wealth of talent in our membership. This is only outweighed by the amount of generosity of our members in volunteering their time and talents despite busy professional and personal lives. Thank you all so much for giving yourselves to this cause and for choosing to help your fellow Missourians in their time of need.  Kudos to Craig and the other committee members for stepping up to serve!

-Rich