Psych Continuing Ed Public Blog

PsychContinuingEd.com Call for Speakers

Todd Finnerty, Psy.D. has applied to become approved by the APA to sponsor CE on behalf of PsychContinuingEd.com. We expect to hear whether our application was approved in November, 2010. In addition, we also have the option to file applications as one course providers with the Ohio Psychological Association if desired (http://www.ohpsych.org/mceproviders.aspx), and we will also apply for single program approval (course by course) with the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and MFT board [we will eventually be applying to be an approved provider from them as well (http://cswmft.ohio.gov/FormsCE.stm)].

If you are curious you can learn more about the APA sponsor Approval system as well as requirements for the CE program on their website. They also have resources such as guidelines for writing learning objectives.

http://www.apa.org/ed/sponsor/index.aspx

Dr. Finnerty will take primary responsibility for filing paperwork and ensuring that administrative requirements and policies are followed. He will also be available to consult with speakers on any aspect of development of their presentations.

We are currently interested in mental health professionals willing to offer presentations in the central Ohio area in Spring/Summer, 2011. We are also willing to discuss offering programs in cities throughout Ohio as well as neighboring cities such as Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, etc. in the near term depending on interest and opportunity. As we grow moving forward, PsychContinuingEd.com will also pursue nationwide opportunities to sponsor or cosponsor programs.

At this time we are gauging interest from individuals to present 3 hour and 6 hour live CE programs primarily in the greater Columbus, OH area. Given the typical conference center rate structures in the area, if you plan to present a 3 hour presentation we will attempt to pair your 3 hour course with another 3 hour course the same day (one morning course before a lunch break and one afternoon course following the lunch break). We are targeting the months of April, May and June, 2011 for our first live courses, though we may do one as early as March, 2011. We would like lead time to get single course approvals from the counselor/social worker/MFT board as well as allow ample time for promoting the programs.

If you do not have one we will provide a PC laptop w/ remote for PowerPoint slides and will rent a projector via the conference center. Your main concern as the speaker would simply be developing a quality presentation, we would take care of the rest. Speakers would not be asked to cover any costs of the venue, etc. Given that we are also still new at the business we would prefer to offer a generous profit-sharing arrangement to our speakers where they share in the profits of the course. The more successful the program is, the more successful the speaker is and vice versa. We will also be able to adapt the live course content for online delivery and will also pay speakers royalties on the online course offerings.

Name:_______________________________________________________________

If you are able to offer courses in Columbus, OH in any of the following months please check that month

March___________

April____________

May_____________

June_____________

Are there any Fridays during those months that you would prefer not to perform a presentation? ___________________________________________________________

(We will also confirm any speaking dates together prior to any actions being taken)

Would you be interested in presenting your course(s) in cities other than Columbus, OH in the future? (Yes_______ NO________ Maybe________)

What topics would you like to present on (and would you be interested in doing more than one course?)

Please feel free to mention this Call for Speakers to other friends and colleague who might be interested in presenting. Dr. Finnerty can be contacted at toddfinnerty@toddfinnerty.com or (330)495-8809.

Feel free to check out the website at http://www.PsychContinuingEd.com

2010 Virtual Conference on Counseling (2VCC)

Looking for something new and different in relation to continuing education? How about the September 15-18, 2010 counselor education conference on Second Life.  You could attend a conference in a virtual 3-D world, learn more at (CESL)  http://sl.counseloreducation.org/

and sign up for Second Life (the environment where the conference is held) for Free (I signed up, its amusing):

“2.03 Maintaining Competence
Psychologists undertake ongoing efforts to develop and maintain their competence”

For some reason I thought the APA ethics Code was more “wordy” about CE credits. But what more do you have to say? Actually, it doesn’t make much sense to pay for CE credits if you don’t have to pay for CE credits. So all of you psychologists and other mental health professionals in states where you don’t have a required amount or type of continuing education to maintain your licensure, feel free to brag while reading courses for free on our site to “maintain competence” after we launch this fall (you’d only pay for the CE credits if you needed them). You of course would have to pay for a live workshop if you went to one or a book unless you got it from the library (I recommend inter-library loan if you’re not sure about the book, it still exists).

I’ve made some additions to the CE directory after a long lapse where I haven’t been updating despite public request, sorry, I have 3 presentations to give in the next month so it took being really busy to find needing something else to do for procrastination’s sake With that being said I’m exploring the possibility of sponsoring some live, in-person continuing education workshops in about one year and moving toward sponsoring some distance education on this site as well, though it would likely not be until at least next year (though I am currently playing with some course management software).

If you are interested in learning more as it happen, you can now subscribe to blog updates via e-mail from feedburner (google):

I wrote an overview of the changes in DSM-5 at http://www.dsm-5diagnosis.com and will keep the article up to date here, I will also keep you informed of any DSM-5 related continuing education opportunities and please let me know if you become aware of any so we can pass them along, thanks

I will be posting alerts to DSM-V (aka DSM-5) continuing education updates that you can get APA approved continuing education for (as well as some other interesting courses that aren’t), I also have started reviewing books and relevant research you may be interested in and compiling a list of research and resources for DSM-5 diagnoses (check out a list of resources at http://www.worldwidementalhealth.com and/or http://www.dsm-5diagnosis.com)

I also am really behind on the updates for the main directory, to all of you who have e-mailed me suggestions for course providers for the site, I still have your submissions and I will get them up ASAP, thank you again, and as always remember, you are also free to register and submit posts to this blog as well related to your own reviews of courses or even suggestions for places to look for mandatory continuing education (MCE) (although of course CE isn’t mandatory in some states, just a nice, ethical idea). 

If you see any of those postcards trying to get you to join the National Register of Health Service Providers in psychology- check them out, you’ll have to take a survey and then you can have access to 4 different one credit ethics courses. They are quick and easy, free and no purchase necessary

http://www.PsychCEU.com is  offering all of their courses on the military for 20% off, through the end of the year.

Healthforumonline announced a new Children’s Disability report writing course which may be of interest to those involved in both assessing and working with children as well as evaluating the mental health social security disability claims of children.

It is by Patricia A. Farrell, Ph.D. and offers 3 credits.

And accoring to Healthfoumonline.com:

“This course presents the salient components of the most commonly alleged Disability impairments for children (Organic Disorders, Mood Disorders, Mental Retardation, Anxiety Disorders, Autistic/PDD, and ADHD). The training/licensure required for submitting Disability reports is defined, with a focus on providing health professionals with a fuller understanding of how mental health Social Security Disability (SSD) determinations are made for children, the instrumental legal decision which established children’s right to Disability payments, the associated language and acronyms, the regulations (the POMS) governing mental health disability and how to write effective reports that meet these regulatory standards of Social Security Disability. Specifically, the course offers a glossary of necessary terminology along with guidance on acceptable reports and relevant information on how failure to observe the rules and regulations may have a negative impact on applications for Disability benefits. In addition, a discussion of which psychological/psychiatric tests are acceptable, as well as the importance of behavioral indicators within reports and how to best phrase these, is presented along with a review of the forms used and links to important Social Security website.”

So, now if you register and then go to site admin on the bottom right corner of the blog you can post your own course reviews of mental health related continuing education courses (preferably online or independent study courses) and then they will be tweeted on twitter through DrFinnerty’s twitter account- assuming people don’t start abusing it so who will be the first to give it a shot?

Feel free to follow DrFinnerty on twitter as well: http://twitter.com/DrFinnerty

By the way, the first edition of my book on depressive personality disorder is available for review 9and for sale on Amazon), take a look at http://www.depressivepersonality.com

http://www.PsychContuingEd.com is an online directory of (primarily) APA accredited continuing education providers for Psychologists and other mental health professionals.