The InterPsych Newsletter 2(2)
IPN 2(2) Section B: InterPsych and Special Interest Group Update
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VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 THE INTERPSYCH NEWSLETTER NOV, 1994
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SECTION B:
INTERPSYCH AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
UPDATE
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|This section serves to foster awareness among InterPsych's |
|members of discussions in different SIGs and to encourage |
|people to become active in InterPsych. This section contains|
|two general article types: a) Short articles discussing |
|current developments at Interpsych and b) summarizations of |
|recent discussions in the SIGs. If you are interested in |
|writing a summary for a group that you belong to, please |
|contact Sean Sullivan (ssulliva@opal.tufts.edu). To comment|
|on an article in this section, send a message to |
|(udipn@badlands.nodak.edu). |
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* INDEX *
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1: INTERPSYCH UPDATE
2: SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SIG) UPDATE:
A. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
B. CLINICAL PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
C. DEPRESSION
D. RURAL CARE
3: NEW RURAL-CARE LIST
4: POSITIONS AVAILABLE WITHIN INTERPSYCH
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1: INTERPSYCH UPDATE
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As the end of the year draws nearer and the Mailbase deadline
approaches, InterPsych is continuing to plan for the
changeover to a new physical location. This changeover should
not affect InterPsych's conferences or operations in any way.
The InterPsych Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) is now
operational. With InterPsych's interests and programs
growing, there was a strong need to become systematic and
organized about how InterPsych's daily and long term affairs
were managed. The SPC was formed to this end. The SPC is
charged and empowered by the Board of Directors of InterPsych
to do the following:
1. Proposals
a. Issue guidelines for Requests for Proposals
b. Receive Proposals
c. Decide which proposals IP should enact
2. Generate vision for IP
a. Suggest new directions to Board
b. Issue calls for proposals
c. Empower such ad hoc committees as necessary to run IP
3. Oversee Financial Obligations of IP
a. Determine financial plan
b. Oversee financial administration
The following positions on the SPC have been filled:
Charles Stinson: Chair
Ian Pitchford: Executive Secretary
Marty Seligman: President of InterPsych
Beth Hudnall Stamm: Chair of ad-hoc documents committee
David DiLalla: Chair of SciPub Committee
Ivan Goldberg: Chair of Synchronous Teleconferencing
Division
Ben Goldhagen: Commercial Director
Additional positions on the committee are currently being
discussed. As the SPC was set up only several weeks ago, the
committee is in its early phase of work - such as
incorporating InterPsych as a nonprofit organization and
developing alliances with university departments throughout
the world. If you have any questions about the organization
of the SPC, please contact Ian Pitchford
(I.Pitchford@sheffield.ac.uk).
InterPsych has a new legal team: Diedra O'Conner Quinn & Steve
Tucker at the firm White & Case. This arrangement was made
through the Lawyers Alliance for New York, who has been giving
InterPsych legal advice up to the present. InterPsych started
with the Lawyer's Alliance with the understanding they would
refer us to a large firm as soon as possible, as InterPsych's
needs are greater than the Lawyer's Alliance could handle
in-house. White & Case is a large firm with offices around the
world. We look forward to working with them in the future.
The number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) continues to
grow. A SIG in Rural Care was recently created and has grown
in membership quickly (see SIG Update below). Still, there is
great interest in continuing to expand the number of SIGs that
InterPsych sponsors. Some groups that have been discussed are
an AIDS/HIV group, a Geriatrics/Elderly care group, and a
Substance Abuse group. If you are interested in moderating
one of these groups or would just like to voice your opinion
that these groups should be created, please send a message to
the IPN mailbox (udipn@badlands.nodak.edu). If there are
other SIGs that you would like to see created, send a message
to the same address. As InterPsych was formed to serve the
mental health community, we are always interested in finding
new ways to help our members. (JJP, SPS)
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2 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SIG) UPDATE:
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Below are summaries of recent discussions for some of the SIGs
that InterPsych sponsors.
A: CLINICAL-PSYCHOLOGY:
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The clinical-psychology SIG remains active, with over 400
members. A new list, called Div12 began last month, which is
open to all members of APA Division 12 (including graduate
student affiliates). Write to Dr. Joseph J. Plaud
(plaud@badlands.nodak.edu) for details. Recent debate on the
clinical-psychology list has included diploma mills that grant
doctorates, extended debate over the validity of the DSM-IV
classification system, and most recently debate over the use
of the Rorschach. (JJP)
B: CLINICAL-PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY:
-------------------------
Clinical-Psychophysiology was initiated two month ago by Dr.
Arnon Rolnick from the Israeli Association for Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. Since then we "enlisted"
almost 250 people from the following countries: Australia,
Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, Korea,
Netherlands, New Zealand Switzerland,, Taiwan, and USA.
About fifth of our members are joining us via commercial
networks (50 members have the *.com extension). Three leading
scholars has joined me in as members of the board. Prof.
Michael Rosenbaum from Tel-Aviv University, Prof. Steven Wolf
from Emory School of Medicine, Prof. Niels Birbaumer from the
University of Tubingen, Germany. Prof. Rosenbaum, Prof. Wolf
and Prof. Birbaumer will help me to steer this list. A
contact was made with the American Association for Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback which also announced the
existence of the list in its publications . We also receive
some help from commercial companies: The list is partially
sponsored by UltraMind International. Other sources of support
will be gladly accepted. The forum is still in its formative
period: the level of activity varies and sometimes the list
is almost dormant. I intend to ask members to introduce
themselves and tell us their interests, research area, and
clinical work that they are doing. Contributor: Arnon Rolnick
C. DEPRESSION:
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The Depression SIG has started a journal club; nominations for
articles, as well as volunteers to 'host' a given club, are
currently being solicited. We will attempt to contact authors
of chosen articles, and include the authors in our discussion.
The club has the potential to be instructive and fun--please
participate! Contributor: Thomas Joiner
D. RURAL-CARE:
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Rural-Care is off to a grand start. After only two weeks of
being on-line, we have over 180 people signed up on the
conference. This group seems to be focusing in directions
that are heretofore uncommon on rural discussion lists. Many
of those who are participating in Rural-Care, serve extremely
isolated areas and areas in developing nations. Topics of
discussion for the first two weeks have centered around
defining rural/bush and can we do this? After some animated
interchange, the discussion shifted to Why we need to define
rural. What makes it different to deliver health care
services to some areas when compared to others? Some of the
popular ideas focus on population density, infrastructure,
transportation, and of course, resources. Some of the
areas that are represented by the Rural-Care people are
Alaska, Australia, KwaZulu-Natal, Finland, England, Germany,
Canada, including the Northwest territories and the "lower 48"
of the USA. We are a broadly defined group with members from a
large number of different backgrounds including mental health,
nursing, virology, and general medicine. In addition, there
are a number of students who are in training who wish to
establish their practices in rural/remote/bush areas. Overall,
there seems to be a positive feeling about being able to
connect from seriously remote areas of the world.
Contributor: B. Hudnall Stamm
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3: NEW RURAL-CARE LIST
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This conference has been set up to encourage an exchange of
ideas, opinions, and information among persons concerned with
the delivery of mental health services to individuals in rural
and bush areas. The conference is intended for health care
workers in all types of settings.
CONFERENCE COORDINATOR:
Beth Hudnall Stamm, Ph.D. (afbhs@vms.acad2.alaska.edu)
PLEASE NOTE:
To join send a message to majordomo@avocado.pc.helsinki.fi
subscribe rural-care
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4: POSITIONS AVAILABLE WITHIN INTERPSYCH
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InterPsych, a rapidly growing non-profit organization devoted
to seeking developments in the understanding and treatment of
mental health problems, urgently seeks enthusiastic volunteers
for the for the positions below. Rewards include working with
an international group of clinicians and scholars for the
greater good of humanity! To apply for positions, send a
message to Ian Pitchford (I.Pitchford@Sheffield.ac.uk),
Secretary, InterPsych Board of Directors.
HOUSE STATISTICIAN
==================
Someone who will survey, analyze and keep records regarding
InterPsych membership, design a questionnaire to be filled out
when a person first joins InterPsych. Be able to spot trends,
identify areas of strengths and weaknesses regarding mailing
list subscription, IVC usage, e-conference load, etc.
DATABASE DESIGNER
=================
To design databases for use with WWW, includes form
design.
PROGRAMMER/SOFTWARE ARCHITECT
=============================
IMAGINATIVE front end programmer needed. Look and Feel kind of
person. A programmer who sees himself or herself as an artist,
profound understanding for system architecture and navigation
mechanisms required.
PROGRAMMER
==========
IMAGINATIVE HTML programmer needed. To write pages for IVC,
the _InterPsych Virtual Campus_. Look and feel characteristics
are as important as back end beauty, to work with FRONT END
PROGRAMMER.