Professional Practice Committee

Upcoming Professional Practices Committee Events 

Mark your calendars for Professional Practices Committee (PPC) workshops including the return of MPA's Business of Practice event in March. Registration will open for February and March events soon. Watch your email and social media for more! All events will be presented virtually. Interested in joining PPC? Contact MPA at [email protected] 

 Committee Overview

Co-Chairs: Marianne O’Leary, Ph.D. and Selena Snow, Ph.D.

Members: Melinda Capaldi, Psy.D., Laurie Donze, Ph.D., Cindy Graham, Ph.D., Michelle Perry, Ph.D., Christine Sylvest, Ph.D.

Mission: To serve as a resource for members in professional practice by addressing clinical practice issues and providing information and opportunities to aid practitioners in maintaining and growing sound practices

2020 Accomplishments: • We provided webinars on the following topics: Money in private practice; navigating Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness and creating financial budgets and systems during times of uncertainty.

• We held a successful Business of Practice Event that focused on using social media in practice; creating and managing a website and SEO strategies; and getting the most out of your Electronic Health Record (EHR). We developed a focused feedback form for the event to enable us to enhance the program for the future. We also wrote an article about the event in The Maryland Psychologist to help spread awareness of our annual event and build interest for next year.

• At the request of the Legislative Committee, we formed the Licensing Issues Subcommittee (LISC) to screen bills that pertain to licensing issues. This subcommittee is chaired by Jon Gorman, Psy.D.

• In light of COVID-19, we provided information to the membership via the listserv and the MPA website regarding: resources for coping with the effects of COVID-19 for psychologists and their patients; information about safety precautions in the office and the transition to telehealth and how to communicate these changes to patients; and information about accessing financial grants and loans at the federal, state, and county levels.

Current Initiatives: • We are actively planning our webinar series for the upcoming year of 2020- 2021. • Planning for our annual Business of Practice Event, which has been moved from the Fall to a Spring date in order to reduce conflicts with other MPA events and holidays in the Fall. Future Goals: • To recruit more members for our committee in order to better support our mission and goals. • Continue to add documents to the Professional Practice Toolkit on the MPA website to provide additional resources and information to members. • Continue to respond to the evolving needs of membership due to the impact of COVID-19 upon practices