Together at Last! We Loved Seeing you at APA!

Together at Last! We Loved Seeing you at APA!

By Miya Barnett, PhD, & Joy Gabrielli, PhD
APA Convention SCCAP Program Chair & Co-Chair

It was wonderful being in Minneapolis with those who could make it to APA in August! Despite uncertainty, many of us were able to remember the joys of in-person conferences and others were able to take advantage of virtual programming. For those of you who were able to attend, it was a joy to see your faces (or at least the part not covered by a mask) and catch up. The Social Hour and Award Ceremony were hits, with many happy reunions!

This year’s SCCAP program was excellent – with leading scholars discussing their work related to children’s mental health equity. We were thrilled to hear from many student members about how inspired and invigorated they felt listening to our division speakers. The keynotes from Drs. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo and Maggi Price highlighted exceptional work focused on improving mental health access and outcomes for youth and families who experience marginalization.  We also had the great honor of hearing from two legends in the field who won Distinguished Career Awards – Drs. Enrique Neblett and Michael Roberts.

If you missed the Main Stage and Feature Stage programming, you can still access presentations at https://convention.apa.org on demand if you registered for APA. This should keep us all intellectually stimulated until next year’s convention!  

2023: See you in DC!

APA 2023 is currently scheduled for August 3-5 next year in Washington DC. We are glad to welcome next year’s Co-Chair, Nicole Lorenzo Ph.D., to the convention programming team! Dr. Lorenzo brings expertise in early interventions for youth at risk for developing psychopathology with a particular focus on intervention support for underserved and low-resourced communities. Her contributions will greatly benefit upcoming APA conventions.

We are approaching a benchmark for the division as SCCAP is approaching its 25th year as a unique division in APA. In preparation for this meaningful anniversary, our conference programming for 2023 will maintain an eye towards scientific and clinical innovation in the service of lasting impact, and specifically how this work has potential to change or move the field. Our overarching theme will be “Innovation and Impact.” We welcome submissions of proposals for individual presentations, symposia, discussion panels, and skill-building sessions that demonstrate the high-level impact of your work in domains of translational science,  methods/tools/approaches, orwork with underserved and/or underrepresented populations.

Impacts related to the global pandemic and new recognition of barriers to education and clinical resources have forced innovations in expedited telehealth service delivery, remote learning, and research design. We are interested to hear howchanges across domains (e.g., service delivery, research methods, etc) have been employed for the promotion of mental health and psychological wellbeing of youth and families. We invite submissions of proposals for individual presentations, symposia, discussion panels, and skill-building sessions that describe these innovations and their impact on the science and practice of clinical child and adolescent psychology.

Posters, Symposia, Discussions, and Skill-Building Sessions: Due Date TBA (early 2023)

We hope to receive proposals in a range of formats from a range of presenters. Perspectives from BIPOC and members of underrepresented groups are extremely valuable to our community and are warmly encouraged towards submission and participation in this conference. Individuals across settings and degree status (i.e., trainees, early career professionals, practicing psychologists, researchers, and academics) are all invited to submit proposals — we value your contributions to our community of learning and collaboration!

As the APA engages in planning for the future, the upcoming conference format and programming remains under discussion. Look for the 2023 Call for Proposals portal on the APA website in late October/early November. Please feel free to reach out to us at our SCCAP conference email address: APAConvention@sccap53.org. We are happy to give feedback and provide more information as you prepare your proposals.