“ON THE ROAD AGAIN…. SEEIN’ THINGS THAT I MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN”
Pat DeLeon, Ph.D.
March 30, 2026
Why Not Join APA President Wendi Williams? Katherine McGuire, Chief APA Advocacy Officer spent nearly twenty-five years on Capitol Hill, retiring after having served as Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Health, Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Appreciating the importance of psychology’s personal involvement in the political/public policy process, she has regularly been providing special opportunities for our colleagues to become actively engaged. Under her leadership, the APA Psychology PAC recently convened a virtual conversation with Representative Andrea Salinas (D-OR), bringing together APA leadership and PAC members to discuss federal mental health, substance use, and workforce priorities. First elected to Congress in 2022, Rep. Salinas is the first Latina to represent Oregon and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus.
During the program, APA CEO Arthur Evans led a fireside chat with Rep. Salinas where she discussed ongoing legislative efforts related to mental and behavioral health care and the importance of strengthening a diverse and sustainable mental health workforce. Her background in the Oregon state legislature – including leadership roles and service on health care and behavioral health committees – has informed her work in Congress, where she continues to engage with stakeholders on policies affecting access to care and workforce development.
The personalized examples which Rep. Salinas provided of working “across the aisle” for the betterment of our nation – for example, to block the Administration’s initially proposed draconian reductions to SAMHSA – were inspirational. She also made it very clear that stories highlighting one’s own family issues with mental health and/or substance use experiences definitely do make a lasting impression on potential advocates and local, state, and national policy makers. As Katherine emphasized at this year’s Practice and SPTA Leaders Conference: “Advocacy is the bridge between psychology and policymakers. It translates lived experiences into policy-relevant terms, brings evidence to decisionmakers, and ensures policies reflect clinical reality instead of assumptions. Without that bridge as the core infrastructure, policy still gets made – just without the benefit of what psychology knows and without the knowledge of what practitioners need.”
A Community of Genuine Interest: Steve Behnke – “One of the most rewarding aspects of directing the APA Ethics Office was the opportunity to offer workshops for our associations. Ethics workshops are a primary way for APA to support the important work that happens on the local level. Associations from Guam to British Columbia to the Virgin Islands advance psychology in myriad ways. Invitations to speak were always an honor, and I was especially pleased to help the associations generate funds to further their work. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the experience was the opportunity to share a meal with association leaders, members, and students, where I was able to hear about current issues and challenges. Ethics education and consultations are terrific resources for all APA-affiliated psychologists.”
“Like a band o’ gypsies, we go down the highway”: Earlier this year, “21 State Attorneys General wrote a letter to National Academy of Sciences (NAS) President Marcia McNutt and President-Elect Neil Shubin in which they stated that the NAS should remove from its website the chapter on climate science in the 4th edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. The chapter was prepared for, and in collaboration with, the Federal Judicial Center. Responding to pressure from these 21 AGs, the Federal Judicial Center removed the chapter. The AGs accused the NAS of a long history of political bias. They demanded a response and asked, among other things: ‘Why did the National Academies include a chapter on climate science that is not based on balanced or sound science?’
“The consensus that human activities are responsible for the rapid and damaging change in the climate is overwhelming. This consensus on global warming is so ubiquitous that finding advocates for ‘the other side’ is virtually impossible – any conflicts of interest by the authors of the chapter on climate science are not relevant to the main point. Numerous previous reports came to the very same conclusions as the chapter in the reference manual. The NAS publishes settled science, which scientists are in the best position to defend and explain. It is important to note that the DOE report attempting to rebut this settled science on the causes of global warming was based on demonstrably false data and analysis.
“Accordingly, NAS President McNutt informed the 21 AGs that the chapter would not be removed from its website. The American Meteorology Society and associated societies issued a powerful statement urging that the climate science chapter be restored in the Manual with cogent reasons why this should be done. Several eminent legal scholars co-authored an article explaining why the deletion of this chapter will make it harder for judges to wade through the scientific complexities they face in the courtroom.
“I am neither a climate scientist nor a legal scholar but as a scientist I can state unequivocally that the climate chapter of the Reference Manual is, in fact, in accord with, and based upon, a vast amount of research by a large number of qualified climate scientists, as is thoroughly documented in the chapter…. Whatever one’s preferences, public policy decisions should be based on facts, not preferred outcomes, and every policy decision should be informed by a sober analysis of cost/benefit trade-offs.
“Following receipt of President McNutt’s letter to the 21 AGs informing them that the chapter on climate sciences would remain on the NAS website…. the 21 AGs, joined by three others State AGs, wrote the Secretaries of Transportation, War and Energy and stated that ‘Federal agencies should investigate whether NASEM should be suspended or disbarred from federal funds.’
“Defunding NASEM would be an enormous blow to the state of scientific research in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Congressional authorization that formed the NAS in 1863 ‘to provide independent, objective advice to the U.S. government and other organizations on science, technology, and health policy.”
Forging Ahead into the Unknown: It is very pleasant to reflect with longtime colleagues possessing vision on the difference they have been able to make for the profession and for those benefiting from psychologists and other behavioral healthcare providers. Slightly over a decade ago (2013), Tim Elliott of Texas A&M University shared with us his efforts to partner with public health in order to provide psychological services to rural clinics. That spring he obtained 1115 Medicaid Waiver funds to expand their efforts to three additional counties. “Right now we are in Leon County and Madison County. This fall we should initiate services in Washington County (in Brenham, home of Blue Bell ice cream). Next fall we should open up in Grimes and Burleson counties. All with doctoral students as the ‘service providers’ and they get practicum hours they need in the process.”
Fast forward to this past December 29th. “Oh, it’s grown tremendously from those days. In 2013 I hired my protégé, Carly McCord as a post-doc and in the ensuing years she took over the leadership of the small clinic that expanded to 4 then 6 counties and developed a center that attracted more state funds. In time, other colleges on campus got involved. More counties, jails, public school districts. She took it to the next level. And to cut to the chase, Carly is now the Director of the Texas A&M Telehealth Institute. It is officially recognized by our Board of Regents, and its mission serves the A&M system (not just the College Station campus). Above and beyond anything I ever envisioned.
“I retired in August, 2024. I cannot tell you how proud I am of Carly and the work she’s done. Now she has a psychology internship in place. Her staff is tremendous. A special moment occurred for me in October when my wife and I stayed in Fort Davis State Park in far west Texas, in the Big Bend area. There in Fort Davis – the town with the highest elevation in the state – is a ‘container’ primary care clinic. And our A&M Institute staff provides the mental health services to that clinic, which is approximately 520 miles away from College Station. [https://telehealth.tamu.edu/index.html].
“Further Reflections: Tim — Quantitively, 10,000+ people served to date (force multiplier is the families and communities they belong to); 70,000+ hours of therapy delivered via telehealth; $10M+ value of services provided at no cost to the patient; 35+ peer reviewed publications; 100+ peer reviewed presentations; 10+ dissertations from the clinic; and 200+ psychology doctoral students from clinical, counseling and school psychology, and mental health related fields (force multipliers for rural, underserved, and telehealth) have earned practicum hours. The Telehealth Institute now provides training for students from nursing, medicine, nutrition, and pharmacy.
“Carly – Qualitatively: We needed Public Health + Psychology. One discipline without the other would have stalled progress for both fields. It’s the public health mindset that drives psychology to be scalable. This work didn’t start as a clinic, it started as a relationship between us, public health and community members. At the outset and even today many people like county judges and school counselors were just as central as faculty. Trust came first. Scale came later. And scale wasn’t possible without trust and community partnership. Training shapes careers long after graduation and grants ending.
“Psychology doesn’t have a relevance problem: we still have deployment problems (sustainability, limited financial structures, usability, digital literacy and user experience of telehealth platforms in general – broadband access… people want it in their hands. We’ve done a pretty good job as a nation on making hub and spoke models of delivery feasible in terms of broadband, but direct to consumer is still challenging and this plus the essential ingredient of community is why we shouldn’t abandon the hub and spoke and academic community partnership model just to set up links to sign up for services like the consumer market. This is still super needed for rural, low-resourced people and THEY are the backbone of America. I don’t think we innovated for innovations sake then or now. But in research and academics and funding, innovation is measured and weighted. We innovated in service of access and workforce development/training the next generation.”
What makes this rural health story particularly satisfying is appreciating the extent to which during that time insurance companies (including Medicare and Medicaid), policy makers, and the behavioral healthcare professions were quite hesitant to fully embrace the virtual (i.e., telehealth) provision of mental health and substance use care. As always, the rhetorical questions: How do we know the quality of care is equivalent? What percentage of trainee supervision time would be appropriate to be conducted virtually? And not surprisingly, At what rate should virtual psychotherapy be reimbursed? We would only ask: Did we learn anything from our very positive COVID experiences with virtual communications? And as always, Shouldn’t the patient be empowered to make the ultimate decisions regarding his/her health care? Tim and Carly waded into unchartered waters, embracing interprofessional collaboration as visionaries typically do. As Tim reflects: “Hire good people with the right skills and intangibles, give ‘em what they need and stay out of their way.” “The life I love is makin’ music with my friends” (Willie Nelson, On the Road Again). Aloha,
Pat DeLeon, former APA President – Division 29 – April, 2026