The OPA Ethics Committee: What we do and who we are
The OPA Ethics Committee: What we do and who we are
Hello OPA community! The OPA Ethics Committee (EC) would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to what we do and who we are.
We are a volunteer committee, currently made up of 9 OPA psychologists, who serve 5-year terms, and 3 OPA student members who serve 2-year terms. Our main function is to serve as a consultative body, primarily for OPA members, but also for students, and even the mental health community at large. In this role, we take calls from psychologists and other providers who are dealing with a range of ethical issues. We field calls about issues you would expect, such as multiple relationships, confidentiality, and informed consent; we also field calls about more unique or unusual issues, such as therapists feeling threatened by their clients, termination issues, or supervisor/supervisee relationships. We consider the confidentiality of these consultations to be of primary importance and we take multiple steps to address this. First, we document consultation calls with ID numbers rather than identifying information and when discussing the calls in EC meetings do not include any identifying information. Second, any EC member who may have a conflict of interest recuses themselves from all activity related to the call. Third, we do not share any information outside of the EC. Specifically, we do not report any information to the Oregon Board of Psychologists. There has been some confusion in the past, based on ORS 676.150, which mandates that psychologists report prohibited or unprofessional conduct of their peers. EC members are not required to report to the licensing board under this rule.
Because ethical and legal issues often overlap, we work closely with OPA’s general counsel, Paul Cooney, referring many callers to him to answer legal questions that arise during our consultations. We also coordinate with OPA’s Confidential Peer Support Committee in an effort to support OPA members who are experiencing conflict with colleagues, clinical concerns, family conflicts, or any other distressing situations which might affect the capacity for work. If you are experiencing a problem and you are not sure who to contact first, please call us, and we will help you find the appropriate resource(s).
The EC typically receives approximately four to six consultation calls per month, which is a surprisingly low number given that there are over 3000 active licensed psychologists listed on the Oregon Board of Psychology’s website! We have a highly effective triage system in place to streamline the referral process. The first step starts with you sending an email to opaethicscommittee@gmail.com that includes a description of your specific concerns, contact information, and convenient contact times. The EC member who serves as the Consultation Coordinator retrieves the message and contacts the rest of the EC members to determine who can best address your specific concerns. That member then contacts you within 1 week to set up a consultation phone call. The actual consultation takes place by phone or Zoom and may take up to 1 hour. The reason for the lengthy call is because we don’t provide an answer to your specific question; instead, we work with you to develop a plan that will best address your unique situation. An important step in this process is for you to review the APA Ethics Code prior to the consultation call in order to identify the sections of the code most relevant to your situation; the EC member assigned to your call will do the same. Following the consultation call, the EC member provides a summary of the call at the next EC meeting and contacts you via a follow-up phone call with any comments or feedback.
In addition to our consultative role, the EC participates in many other activities. First, to make sure that graduate students are aware of our services, we offer presentations annually in ethics courses at the doctoral programs in clinical psychology in Oregon. Second, we also assist OPA with their continuing education offerings, coordinating with a nationally-recognized psychologist to speak at OPA’s annual ethics workshop in the spring. In recent years, we’ve enjoyed presentations from ethics experts such as Drs. Roy Huggins, Sam Knapp, and Vanessa Hintz. Third, we write quarterly articles for the OPA Bulletin on ethics topics that might interest OPA members. Recent topics have addressed navigating political engagement, the ethics of self-care, addressing client racism, ethical considerations in clinical psychology graduate admissions, suicide risk management via telehealth, and forensic psychology via telehealth. Finally, we present a workshop at the annual OPA conference. Recent workshops have focused on addressing colleagues’ ethical transgressions and ethical hybrid practice.
In September 2022, we have a number of comings and goings on the EC. We regretfully say goodbye to three dedicated student members, Elijah Hill, Sophia Sbi, and Alex Keene, and are happy to welcome three new student members, Alexandra Fisher, Zachary Kramer, and Darcy Gist, all from the PsyD program at Pacific University. We are also excited to add three new psychologist members to the EC in September: Cindy Marino, PsyD (Training Director at Lewis & Clark Counseling Services); Kalin Clark, PsyD (a behavioral health provider at Providence Center for Weight Management); and Dina Wirick, PhD (in private practice providing individual adult psychotherapy and psychological assessment). As these three new members come on board, we say goodbye to Irina Gelman, PsyD; Petra Zdenkova, PsyD; and Justin Lee, PhD. Thank you to our outgoing members for your invaluable service!Other current members of the EC include Allison Brandt, PhD (Director of Youth and Family Services and Director of Community Outreach and Training at Portland Anxiety Clinic); Len Kaufman, PhD (Clinical Director at Portland Mental Health & Wellness); Heather Sheafer, PhD (in private practice conducting forensic evaluations); Erica Aten, PsyD (Director of Child and Adolescent Services at Collective Care Clinic); Erin Steen, PhD (in private practice focused on therapy with adults); and Jennifer Clark, PsyD (Clinical Director at Aspire Psychology).
Although the EC has members with expertise in multiple settings, with multiple age ranges, and with multiple populations, we are continually looking for members who can help us diversify our geographical representation of Oregon. Shifting our meetings to Zoom in 2020 has created greater accessibility for psychologists across the state as meetings no longer require attendance in Portland. If you are interested in joining this dynamic, engaged group of psychologists and students, please reach out to Jennifer Clark at opaethicscommittee@gmail.com.
In summary, the EC has been active over the past year, and we look forward to another year of ethics consultations and educative opportunities. We hope you all will reach out to us at OPA’s conferences and workshops to learn more about us as professionals and EC members. As psychologists, we are privileged to work with people who need our help, which includes all of us at some point! Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any ethics questions or concerns you have; we are here to help.
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