| Abstract: | Psychology is a steadily maturing profession, and we psychologists are finally beginning to accept our societal responsibility to be involved in the public policy and political process. Although psychologists have shown increased involvement in the recent past, there are still many areas in which psychologists could become markedly more involved—especially in the area of programs that affect the quality of life of our nation's elderly, disabled, and poor citizens. As our profession seeks to become more active in the overall health care arena, we will, of necessity, begin to define the parameters of "quality of care" for other professions. In doing so, we must closely explore the "outer limits" of our own practice. We must ensure that all state and federal legislative (and administrative) policies do not impose arbitrary limitations on the scope of practice. To accomplish this objective, we must seek to influence our subset of our nation's health policy priorities and policies that we have traditionally shunned—the subset that affects "the public good." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
