CCPPP History*

The Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs (CCPPP) formerly known as the Canadian Council of Clinical Psychology Programme Directors or CCCPPD was founded in 1977 by Park Davidson of the University of British Columbia. The organization was developed “to serve as the interface between academic programs and internship training sites and to create an arena for program directors to exchange ideas about professional training.” (Alden et al., 1996. p. 223.) According to Ken Craig the earliest meetings from which the CCCPPD would arise were held in the mid '70s. Park Davidson had recently been CPA President and was Professor of Psychology and Director of the UBC Clinical Program at the time. Ken remembers Park as “a very dedicated, effective, and likeable man with great skills in bringing people together. Sadly, a tragic MVA accident in late 1980 led to the deaths of both Park and his wife Sheena, an event that many of us continue to mourn”.

In the early '80s, a major focus for the Council was development of accreditation criteria for graduate clinical programmes across Canada. John Schallow from the University of Manitoba chaired the earliest committees followed by Ken Craig. This work was encouraged by the CPA Committee on Professional Affairs through the creation of a sub-committee on accreditation, chaired by Ken Craig of UBC. Draft accreditation criteria, modelled on but not identical to those of the American Psychological Association, were circulated in 1981. Over the next two years, there was heated debate, whether to adopt standards developed by OPA or APA as the basis for recommendations to CPA. The Council ultimately decided to use the APA standards and procedures as guidelines for the CPA program and a small committee of the Council chaired by Ken Craig produced draft standards for Council review. According to Ken Craig, “discussions of these standards at the 1981and 1982 Council meetings were vigorous, if not raucous”. John Conway, and others captured the spirit of these debates in Canadian Psychology, 1984, 177-191 and 192-231. Some of the background is provided in a paper by Craig, K. D. (1993)

Ken Craig was able to coordinate the relationship between CCCPPD and CPA, as he had been elected to the CPA Board of Directors in 1982 and chaired the Professional Affairs Committee for a number of years. He recalls that “Terry Hogan, who became CPA President at that time, charged the Professional Affairs Committee with the responsibility to ensure that an accreditation program was developed”. In 1983, the revised and refined Accreditation Criteria for Clinical Psychology Programmes and Internships (1984) were strongly endorsed by the CCCPPD and adopted by the CPA Board.” (Doyle et al., 1993. p 80-81).

Through this process the CCCPPD became more organized and between 1982 and 1985, the executive started writing bylaws and began collecting dues. In the 1990’s during Bob Van Mastrigt’s presidency, the name was changed from the Canadian Council of Clinical Psychology Program Directors (CCCPPD) to the Canadian Council of Clinical Psychology Programs (CCCPP) to permit program representatives other than the director to attend meetings. The name was then changed again from CCCPP to the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs (CCPPP) to be more inclusive of counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and other branches of professional psychology.

Also in the 1990’s an article by Lynn Alden and others from CCPPP outlines the priorities for professional training in the 90’s. Issues raised included: the development of core curriculum for professional training programs, coping with budget cuts, preparing students for training in nontraditional settings, options for delivering clinical supervision, multicultural issues in training, training in business and entrepreneurial skills.

In the later 1990’s, there was considerable discussion as to whether internship programs in Canada should use APPIC criteria. Since 2000, CCPPP’s profile was heightened with APPIC and other colleagues in U.S. training organizations, thanks to a committee of CCPPP members (Carl von Baeyer, John Pearce, Sandra Clark, Stewart Longman, Jane McEwan), Laurene Wilson (Committee Chair), and Janice Cohen (President). The committee developed guidelines for internship application reference letters, which Janice and Laurene subsequently evaluated and presented both at APPIC and CPA conferences. These guidelines are now used widely in Canada but also in the U.S.

The other major issue since 2000 has been CCPPP’s role in spearheading a move toward CPA only accreditation. At the 2003 AGM, our major focus was the issue of concurrent accreditation. Two motions were passed unanimously in favour of developing a process whereby academic programs and internships could work toward choosing CPA accreditation alone rather than joint CPA-APA accreditation.

References

*This history is incomplete. Please forward any additions or corrections to the webeditor.