RESOLUTION APPROVING THE VIRGINIA CONSORTIUM NEW SPIN-OFF PH.D. PROGRAM IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE EXISTING PSY.D. PROGRAM WHEREAS, the Virginia Consortium Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology Program seeks approval by the Norfolk State University Board of Visitors in support of its proposal to the State Council of Higher Education for a spin off degree program to begin in fall 2013 based on the institutional, faculty, and community resources currently committed to the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology; and WHEREAS, the existing Psy.D. program s objective has been to graduate practicing clinical psychologists who are educated primarily as practitioners, the objective of the spin off Clinical Ph.D. program is to graduate clinical psychologists who are prepared to pursue academic, clinical and research careers; and WHEREAS, the faculty and staff of the Virginia Consortium in Clinical Psychology, which is sponsored jointly by Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), Norfolk State University (NSU), and Old Dominion University (ODU), have endorsed the change in degree title; and WHEREAS, the request for the new spin off Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology has been approved by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, (COLA), the faculty in the Department of Psychology, the COLA Curriculum Committee, the Graduate Council, the University wide Curriculum Committee, the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs and the President of Norfolk State University; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that upon the recommendation of the Norfolk State Academic Affairs Committee, the Board of Visitors approves the Virginia Consortium Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology. RECOMMENDATION: That the above Resolution for the new Virginia Consortium Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology be approved. Approved by the NSU Board of Visitors Executive Committee on November 15, 2012 Ratified by the NSU Board of Visitors on, 2012
Virginia Consortium Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology Spin-off Program Proposal September 5, 2012
4 Description of the Proposed Program Overview The Virginia Consortium Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology seeks approval as a spin-off degree program to begin in Fall 2013 based on the institutional, faculty, and community resources currently committed to the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology, www.sci.odu.edu/vcpcp. The Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology will be administered by the Virginia Consortium in Clinical Psychology, which is sponsored jointly by Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), Norfolk State University (NSU), and Old Dominion University (ODU), all located in Norfolk, VA. The Interinstitutional agreement among the three institutions is Appendix A. The program has an administrative office and staff, located in the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center. The program is directed by the Director of Clinical Training (DCT), the Associate Directors of Training (A-DCT) and four additional faculty members who comprise the program s Advisory Panel (AP). Each institution has two representatives on the AP. Students currently in the Psy.D. program can complete the Psy.D. degree, incoming students will take the Ph.D. curriculum which in time will replace the Psy.D. curriculum and degree. Although other Clinical Psychology Ph.D. programs exist in the state, the Virginia Consortium Ph.D. program will not duplicate existing programs. Its generalist approach to clinical psychology education and its balanced emphasis on research and clinical training set it apart from other clinical programs. When a doctoral program in clinical psychology was first proposed by the Virginia Consortium in the 1970 s, it requested a degree designation that was relatively new at the time, a Psy.D. or Doctor of Psychology, emphasizing the clinical and applied nature of the degree program. The Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology was in fact one of the early adopters of this Psy.D. degree designation, although the program has always maintained a strong empirical research component. The program received SCHEV approval to offer a doctorate in clinical psychology, CIP code 42.2801, and welcomed its first class of doctoral students in 1978. It achieved accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1982 and has been continuously accredited since that time. Whereas the objective of the Psy.D. program has been to graduate practicing clinical psychologists who are educated primarily as practitioners, the objective of the spin-off program is to graduate clinical psychologists who are prepared to pursue clinical and research careers. The clinical Ph.D. program will attract BS and MS students who seek to acquire not only clinical skills but the research skills required to create new knowledge relevant to the assessment, etiology, and treatment of psychological disorders. The Clinical Ph.D. will also prepare students who wish to pursue academic careers with the skills in teaching, research, and service required for success as college and university faculty. The program will continue to seek accreditation from the American Psychological Association as this is the standard for all doctoral programs in clinical psychology, whether Psy.D. or Ph.D. The prevalence of psychological disorders and the need for prevention, assessment and intervention is well documented. The National Institute of Mental Health (2012) reports,
5 Research on psychiatric epidemiology shows that mental disorders are common throughout the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year, and that only a fraction of those affected receive treatment. It estimates the 12-month prevalence of any mental disorder among adults to be 26.2% and of a severe mental illness 5.8%; the lifetime prevalence of any mental disorder is 46.4%. However, only 41.1% received any treatment for these disorders, and of those receiving treatment 32.7% received minimally adequate treatment. The lifetime prevalence for mental disorders among teens (13-18) is equally high, 46.3%. The 12-month prevalence for children (8-15) is 13.1%. Only about half (49.4%) of children receive mental health services for their disorders. Failure to meet the mental health needs of children and youth endangers the mental health future for these individuals. The World Health Organization data (WHO, 2004) estimates an overall 12-month prevalence rate of 26.3% for mental disorders in the United States. The proportion of respondents who received treatment in the U.S was 15.3%. While the most serious cases are more likely than the less serious to receive treatment, it was nevertheless the case that 47.7% of individuals with serious mental disorders received no treatment. The consequences of serious mental illness are also severe. Respondents who reported serious disorders also reported at least 30 days in the past year when they were totally unable to carry out usual activities because of these disorders. The prevalence of mental and developmental disorders has also been well documented for the Commonwealth of Virginia (http://www.dbhds.virginia.gov/ documents/reports/opd- StatePlan2012thru2018.pdf). According to the Comprehensive State Plan 2012-2018, in the first quarter of 2011, Virginia Community Service Boards identified 14,004 individual with mental health, developmental, or substance abuse disorders who were waiting for services. Furthermore, this point-in-time estimate underestimates unmet service needs because it does not identify the number of person who needed services over the course of a year p. ii). Based on these data, the need is clear for clinical psychologists in the roles of practitioners, to provide direct services; researchers, to provide the evidence for effective assessment and treatment; and educators, to train the future workforce that will endeavor to reduce mental illness and its consequences. Other programs across the nation and in the Commonwealth offer Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Psychology, but the consortial arrangement in the Virginia Consortium with the collaborative efforts of three different educational institutions creating a clinical Ph.D. is unique. Eastern Virginia Medical School excels in education in practice, both in the medical arena and in clinical psychology. Faculty members not only teach and conduct research but also are continuously engaged with patient populations. Their expertise in assessment, neuropsychology, eating disorders, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, behavioral medicine, and child psychopathology provide special training opportunities for students. As medical school faculty they are also active in applied research and this combination of practice and research provides a model for a career path open to clinical Ph.D. students. Norfolk State University is a Historically Black University with a mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education for an ethnically and culturally diverse student population. Their faculty will not only instruct and mentor the clinical doctoral students, but their focus on high-quality academic instruction will provide the interested and qualified clinical Ph.D. student with an opportunity to obtain undergraduate teaching experiences that will provide them with a sound basis for a career in academia and an awareness and ability to respond to the needs of a diverse student body. Old Dominion University is a public research university with a commitment to the discovery of new knowledge, through basic and applied research. Graduate faculty in the Psychology Department, located in the College of Sciences, are
6 required to maintain active research programs and are actively engaged in research mentoring with students at all levels. The combined resources of the three Virginia Consortium schools create a Clinical Ph.D. that clearly matches the competencies the program is committed to instilling in its graduates: Ethics, Multiculturalism, Research, Psychological Assessment, Psychological Intervention, and Consultation, Supervision, and Leadership. The Virginia Consortium has well established practicum placements for students clinical training. These include clinics at EVMS, Riverside Rehabilitation Institute, Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Hampton, community mental health centers, public schools and college counseling centers, social service agencies, and private agencies (see Appendix B for a complete list). The Virginia Consortium also has research laboratories and funded research projects which provide Ph.D. students with research training as well as opportunities to conduct their own research. At EVMS Dr. Cubic is the Program Director for a 3-year Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant for training psychologists in integrated healthcare. Drs. Archer and Handel are currently receiving funding from the University of Minnesota Press to develop an extensively revised version of the MMPI-A. Dr. Neumann has research support for studying drug effects in Alzheimer s patients. Drs. Neumann (EVMS), Handel (EVMS), and Paulson (ODU) are receiving NIH funding as co-investigators to assist Aaron Vinik, M.D. (PI- EVMS) in developing a self-report measure of fatigue. The department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences receives about a quarter of a million dollars in research funding, nearly all of it involving the clinical psychology faculty. At ODU Drs. Lewis, Lau-Barraco, Kelley and Paulson are PIs of federally funded research projects on parenting, substance use and abuse, interpersonal violence, and sexual minority stress, all research topics that are relevant to the discipline of clinical psychology. Last year the Department of Psychology had more than a million dollars in funded research, about half involving clinical psychology faculty. At NSU, Drs. Hacker, Colson, and Holmes have received grants related to teaching and working with atrisk students in post-secondary education, health and African American women, and increasing research capacity in liberal arts. Last year, these grants totaled over $230,000 and many of these projects are managed by clinical faculty. Clinical psychology Ph.D. students will also be able to collaborate with practitioners in clinical settings to conduct translational research. The objective of the Virginia Consortium Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology is to prepare clinical students for professional careers in research, academia, and medical and clinical settings. All clinical psychology Ph.D. programs must combine training in research and practice. With resources from three distinct educational environments the program intends not simply to balance research and practice, but to provide students with knowledge and skills that foster integration such that their research activities are always informed by their knowledge of and sensitivity to clinical issues and their clinical work is always informed by their research training and independent research activities. Mission The mission of the proposed Virginia Consortium Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology is to graduate clinical psychologists who are prepared to pursue research and clinical careers. The program aims to provide balanced training in both science and practice. The program will strive to graduate ethical clinical psychologists who are competent in individual and cultural diversity, educated in the basic subjects and methods of psychological science, capable of generating and
7 critically assimilating new knowledge, proficient in the delivery and evaluation of psychological services, and able to assume leadership positions in academic or health service delivery systems. The Virginia Consortium Ph.D. program will emphasize the following areas in its training model: Ethics, Multiculturalism, Research, Assessment, Intervention, Consultation, Supervision, and Leadership. The program s emphases on, ethics, diversity, research, and patient care make it consistent with the mission statements of its three sponsoring institutions: Eastern Virginia Medical School is an academic health center dedicated to achieving excellence in medical and health professions education, research and patient care. We value creating and fostering a diverse and cohesive faculty, professional staff and student body as the surest way to achieve our mission. Adhering to the highest ethical standards, we will strive to improve the health of our community and to be recognized as a national center of intellectual and clinical strength in medicine. http://www.evms.edu/about-evms-missiongoals/evms-mission-goals.html Norfolk State University's mission is through exemplary teaching, scholarship, and outreach, Norfolk State University transforms lives and communities by empowering individuals to maximize their potential, creating life-long learners equipped to be engaged leaders and productive global citizens. http://www.nsu.edu/president/mission-statement.html Old Dominion University is a dynamic public research institution that serves its students and enriches the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation and the world through rigorous programs, strategic partnerships, and active civic engagement The discovery of new knowledge through research and creative endeavor is a central function of Old Dominion University http://www.odu.edu/fusion/about/univmission.shtml With its emphasis on research and practice, the Virginia Consortium Clinical Ph.D. answers the call of the sponsoring institution to achieve excellence in education, research, and patient care, to equip graduates to contribute to a global and rapidly changing society, and to prepare them for the discovery of new knowledge through research. Accreditation The program will seek accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA Commission on Accreditation (CoA) is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a programmatic accrediting body. APA accreditation is a voluntary, nongovernmental process of self-study and external review intended to evaluate, enhance, and publicly recognize quality programs (http://www.apa.org.ed). According to a pre-determined schedule, over which the program has no control, the self-study will be due in spring 2013 and a site visit will occur in fall 2013. The curriculum of the program has been designed to address the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) s Guidelines and Principles (G&P) for accreditation. Online Delivery Only one course, PSYD 705, History and Systems, will be delivered online. This is a foundational course that will be offered every other year to students for students in years 3 and 4. It is currently offered at NSU which has online course technical support through its office of
8 Extended Learning. NSU has been offering online courses for the past eight years and currently offers four fully online degree programs and 155 graduate and undergraduate online courses. Faculty who teach online courses are required to complete a certification program to ensure competence in delivering online courses and the Office of Distance Education provides oversight on the quality of all online courses and programs. Overview Curriculum The curriculum is designed to meet the standards of the program s accrediting body, the Commission of Accreditation of the APA. The Clinical Ph.D. program will be full time. Sequencing of courses and integration of didactic work with clinical work is ineffective in a parttime curriculum. The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology program will require a minimum of 116 credit hours, distributed among the following categories of courses. The following table summarizes the program s 116 credit hours: Category Credit Hours Psychological Foundations 21 Quantitative/Methods Courses 14 Didactic Clinical Courses 24 Elective 3 Clinical Practicum 30 min to 48 max Dissertation 12 Internship 12 Psychological Foundations Psychological Foundation courses are designed to give students a broad and general understanding of the bases of normal and abnormal human behavior, based on both theory and empirical research. Psychological Foundation Courses Course Number Institution Course Title Credit Hours PSYC 651 ODU Developmental Psychology 3 PSYD 705 NSU History & Systems 3 PSYC 831 ODU Human Cognition 3 PSYC 849 ODU Social Psychology 3 PSYD 635 NSU Multicultural & Lifestyle Issues 3 PSYD 961 EVMS Biological Aspects of Behavior 3 PSYC 661 ODU Psychopathology 3 Foundations TOTAL 21