American Board of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology Update

American Board of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology Update

By Adam B. Lewin, PhD, ABPP
President, ABCCAP

ABCCAP is Twenty!!!

Tempus fugit!  ABCCAP is celebrating our 20th year as a specialty board.  Around the same time Child & Adolescent Psychology transitioned from Section 1 of Division 12 (Clinical) to form Division 53, our specialty took a giant step forward in 2003 with the launch of this ABPP specialty board.  I’m grateful to leaders in Pediatric and Clinical Child Psychology who went through considerable efforts to establish our own specialty board:  Dr. Al Finch, Phil Kendall, John Lochman, Jim Johnson, Mike Nelson and Michael Roberts (with Drs. John Piacentini, Mary Fristad, Ric Steele and Lynn Covitz joining the leadership in the first 5 years).  Twenty years later we not only have two child divisions, but we have a child/pediatric training council, an APA Level 3 Child/Pediatric specialty competencies and… yes…, ABCCAP.  Establishing our specialty board was crucial to the advancement of Pediatric and Clinical Child Psychology.  My gratitude to our early leaders (including anyone whom I inadvertently omitted) – several of whom I am grateful to call a mentor!

My time as ABCCAP President has also flown by.  Among my aims this year were increasing applications for boarding, increasing support to candidates and improving our processes.  We set new records in applications (including early applicants), and we markedly increased our informational programming.  We established monthly “office hours” and grew mentor programs to support candidates.  We also launched our National Examiner Board, a group of experienced exam chairs who agreed to multiple examinations (akin to a journal’s editorial board).  I am hopeful for continued growth and that we will further demonstrate the critical role boarding plays in advancing our specialty and increasing parity with physicians and other health professionals.

I am also pleased to announce that we will launch our Diversity Award in 2024 as well as an ABBCAP Scholarship to support boarding costs.  Details will be announced in early 2024.

Our work is just beginning. We need boarding to be main stream among health service psychologists.  Child and Pediatric Psychology is specialized – peer review can help us distinguish individuals and protect the profession. I hope psychologists will seek boarding EARLY in their careers. Physicians have a board-eligibility window:  highly proximal to specialty fellowship training.  I hope we will be able to make applying for boarding the next logical step following licensure/completion of supervised specialty hours.  We also have work to do to improve our efficiency.  We rely on considerable volunteer time (from our peers – up to 9 hours per exam).  To grow, we will need to increase our examiner and mentor pools.  These service roles benefit the advancement of child and pediatric psychology, and also provide service leadership roles to psychologists. Board examiners and mentors are therapists, clinicians, consultants, hospitalists, supervisors, and educators – mentoring and examining is a way to give back, earn continuing education credits, and network with other child/pediatric psychologists devoted to promoting our specialty.

Twenty years ago, I was a Ph.D. student in the Child-Pediatric Major Area at the University of Florida – Clinical and Health Psychology (Go Gators!).  I would have never believed that one day I would have the honor to lead ABCCAP.  I’m deeply appreciative to my fellow board members for countless hours of volunteer time – making the boarding process happen is a ton of work!  I’m excited to hand things off to Dr. David Langer – 2024 President (and SCCAP Treasurer!).  Looking back, there’s legacy in this organization (see the many names above).  Looking forward, the ascending leadership of ABCCAP over the next 4 years (Dr. Langer, Dr. Dan Cheron, Dr. Anna Egan and Dr. Sara Gould) is outstanding.  I hope you will consider volunteer service (if boarded) or if not, applying for specialist designation as part of your New Year’s Resolution 2024.  Please visit our website for more information.