The Power of A

Diane Feirman, CAE
Public Affairs Director
http://www.agpa.org/

As part of its mission the American Group Psychotherapy Association has long promoted group psychotherapy to the public, health professionals and agencies as a unique and highly cost effective form of treatment. This is especially relevant in these difficult economic times, as reflected in a recent Wall Street Journal article on March 24 describing the benefits of group treatment as well as its affordability for people looking for help when they have limited resources. The association is also dedicated to providing the highest quality training and continuing education about group psychotherapy for mental health professionals to best serve the public. Since funding for training and attendance at professional meetings has been drastically reduced, AGPA is addressing this need on several fronts.

To insure that training continues for the population we serve, particularly public agency personnel, AGPA and its philanthropic arm, the Group Psychotherapy Foundation, have established an Education and Scholarship Fund. At AGPA’s most recent Annual Meeting $75,000 of funding made possible over 100 scholarships for agency personnel and young professionals to participate and gain access to quality group psychotherapy training.

AGPA has established an Online Continuing Education Center through which professionals can take courses and workshops and receive Continuing Education Credits without the expense as well as the time commitment of traveling to a professional meeting. Some of these, such as four modules on ethics, are presentations from previous Annual Meetings, which allows AGPA to provide this new service in an efficient and cost-effective manner that does not overly tax the association’s limited resources. Others are on topics such as Blueprint For A New Group and Preparing Group Patients which provide the basics on group to a broad population interested in providing this service to their clients in the current economic environment.

Additionally, the association is working to broaden the use of evidence-based practices in the field. From providing training in interventions for specific populations and diagnostic needs that have been proven effective, to pursuing a variety of ways in which group therapists can easily track outcomes for their clients to provide ongoing feedback on treatment effectiveness, AGPA is working to help its members continually improve the services they provide to the public.