Prescriptive Authority for Psychologists: A Paradigm Shift in Behavioral Health
ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
Instructor: Derek C. Phillips,PsyD, MSCP, ABMP
Instructional Level: Introductory
3 CE credits for Psychologists (APA)
3 CE credits for New York Psychologists (NYSED)
Duration: 3 hours
Price: $60
Description
Since the early 1990s, the prescriptive authority for psychologists (RxP) movement has been spreading across the United States and now, globally into countries such as South Africa, Taiwan, Brazil, Norway, and others. What started as a pilot project in the United States Department of Defense has become increasingly present in other federal systems, as well as in several state- and territory-level jurisdictions.
RxP represents the potential to transform how psychologists interact with and treat their patients and begin a new paradigm in behavioral health at-large that truly works from a biopsychosocial model. In addition to the traditional and foundational psychological competencies of psychotherapy, psychological assessment, supervision, teaching, consultation, and management/administration, etc., RxP adds the ability to treat patients by prescribing or “un-prescribing” medication and ordering laboratory blood work and imaging studies. What has long been relegated to physicians and other “physical health” providers is now included in the education, training, and scope of practice of prescribing/medical psychologists in the jurisdictions in which they have the authority to practice.
This presentation will review the rich history of the RxP movement, the common arguments for and against RxP, the education and training involved in becoming a prescribing/medical psychologist and how it differs from other prescribing professionals, how RxP fits with existing psychological practice, the scope of practice-related differences among jurisdictions, the current landscape and climate of RxP, how to become involved in RxP, as well as goals for the future of this movement.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Describe the history and current status of the RxP movement.
- Assess and critique the arguments for and against RxP.
- Explain the various education and training requirements to become a prescribing/medical psychologist.
- List ways in which one can become involved in the RxP movement.
This is a recording of a previously held live webinar. In order to receive CE credits, users will be required to pass a post-test after watching the video.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Derek Phillips is a licensed clinical and prescribing psychologist in Illinois, a licensed psychologist in Florida, a board-certified medical psychologist, and a clinical neuropsychologist and prescribing psychologist in the Department of Neurology at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon, Illinois. He is the 12th prescribing psychologist in Illinois, as well as the youngest in the state, and the only one outside of the Chicago metropolitan area. Dr. Phillips served as a Health Service Psychologist in the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2019-2021. He has been Executive Director of the APA-designated MS program in clinical psychopharmacology at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) since 2020, where he also teaches psychopharmacology as an adjunct professor in FDU’s APA-accredited clinical psychology PhD program. Previous academic appointments included adjunct professorships at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois and in the MA in clinical psychology program at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Dr. Phillips obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology (summa cum laude) from Olivet Nazarene University in 2009, as well as his Master of Arts degree in counseling psychology and Doctor of Psychology in clinical psychology with a clinical neuropsychology concentration from the APA-accredited Adler University – Chicago campus in 2012 and 2015, respectively. He then completed his one-year predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at Centerstone Consortium in Bradenton, Florida, and two-year postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Psychological & Neurobehavioral Services in Lakeland, Florida. He obtained his postdoctoral Master of Science in clinical psychopharmacology degree from FDU in 2019. Dr. Phillips then completed an 18-month residency in prescribing psychology at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon, Illinois.
Dr. Phillips is Chair of the APA Board of Convention Affairs (2022), Secretary of APA Division 42 (Independent Practice), Treasurer of APA Division 44 (Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity), President-Elect of the Illinois Psychological Association (IPA), member of the APA Designation Committee for Postdoctoral Education and Training in Clinical Psychopharmacology for Prescriptive Authority (RxP Designation Committee), and a member-at-Large of the Illinois Association of Prescribing Psychologists Board of Directors. Additionally, he was the 2021 President of the Society for Prescribing Psychology (APA Division 55) and was the first early career psychologist (ECP) to hold this position. He also serves on the Editorial Board for the Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology and Practice Innovations. He was awarded the Walter Katkovsky Scholarship for Psychopharmacology Training in 2017 by the American Psychological Foundation. In 2020, he was awarded the Patrick H. DeLeon Prize for Outstanding Student Contribution to the Advancement of Pharmacotherapy by APA Division 55, the Society for Prescribing Psychology.
Dr. Phillips does not have any conflicts of interest for this program.
Contact Us
For questions, please contact: ce@gsapp.rutgers.edu or call (848) 445-3577
Continuing Education Information
Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0123.
Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.