Public Interest Directorate
CALL FOR HEALTH EQUITY DISSEMINATION AWARDS:
Public Interest Leadership Conference (PILC) Participants
Health disparities and human rights violations persist even as we have made significant strides in our
understanding of why they occur and in our development of strategies to eliminate them. Our continuing
challenge is to encourage and support psychologists, their constituents and allies in their efforts to effectively
champion for the optimal health and well-being of the communities they serve, to apply psychology in the
public interest. The purpose of the program is to support participants of the 2015 Public Interest Leadership
Conference in their efforts to advance health equity and reduce health disparities through effective
dissemination activities. It is intended to facilitate the adoption of thoughtful, efficacious dissemination
approaches and strategies matched to the intended outcome and audience. It is also intended to stimulate
more involvement of APA public interest psychologists and groups in active health disparities and social justice
awareness and professional development efforts.
Eligibility: Eligible participants include APA divisions and other groups who participated in the Public Interest
Leadership Conference held in November, 2015.
Proposals are sought from individuals representing their respective division or organization
Proposals must reflect divisional/organizational support and relevance to division/organization mission
Proposed activities must reflect the conference theme of health disparities/health equity and address
translation and dissemination
Funded activity must be completed within 12 months from date of receipt of funding
Collaborative activities across divisions and groups are strongly encouraged
Examples of Acceptable Dissemination Activities include but are not limited to:
Campus events, classroom instruction and/or presentations
Professional/Staff development sessions, e.g., webinars
Conference, workshop, symposium, and other related presentations
Community awareness events
Development of resource and informational materials
Social media event
Award Amount: Applicants may receive up to $4,000 for individual projects and up to $6,000 for collaborative projects,
total cost. Awards will be made on a competitive basis only.
Allowable Costs: Funds can be used for materials development, printing and reproduction, travel, per diem,
conference/symposium registrations, stipends, and other activities as approved by the selection committee.
Funding will not be provided for salaries, equipment, rent or charitable donations.
Review Process: Each application will be reviewed by a committee formed by the PILC planning committee.
Selection Criteria and Process:
All applicants must complete an on-line application which requires a description of the dissemination activity,
the level of funding requested, approval of the participating division or organization, itemized budget, and
timeline.
Proposed activity must address health disparities, health equity, and social justice.
Award decisions will be made by a committee established by the PILC.
Award decisions will be made within 6 weeks of the application closing date.
Requirements:
Evaluation. All recipients must use a required evaluation component in addition to any evaluation process
proposed in the application.
Final Report. A final report summarizing the project must be submitted within 3 months after the project ends.
A report template will be provided.
Dissemination within PI/APA. All recipients must share their outcomes through a PI or APA communications
channel, e.g., blog, newsletter, if deemed feasible after conferring with PI/APA staff.
Applications must be received by July 31, 2016.
To APPLY go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YD6V2CC.
The online application questions are attached. Please complete all answers in full prior to beginning the online
submission process. The application must be completed in full once started; you cannot leave the application and
continue it later and you cannot edit the application after submission. For any questions regarding this process, please
contact Patty DiSandro, Program Coordinator, at: pedisandro@apa.org.
Health Equity Dissemination Awards Application
Public Interest Leadership Conference (PILC) Participants
Public Interest Directorate, APA
NOTE: All Items below must be completed in full to submit this application.
1. Is this an individual or collaborative application, and which APA division(s) or group(s) is applying?
Individual ____
Collaborative ___XX___
Which APA division(s) or group(s) is applying?
1. Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP)
2. APA Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public interest (BAPPI)
2. Please indicate the Name, Degree, Title, Affiliation, and Contact Information (phone, email, and
mailing address) below of each applicant representative, and indicate who will be the primary
point of contact.
Applicant 1. Gayle Skawennio Morse, Ph.D., attended PILC as BAPPI Chair-elect, Associate
Professor, Sage Colleges, 38 N. Allen St., Albany, NY 12203, phone: 518-292-1819, email:
morseg@sage.edu
Applicant 2. Art Blume, PhD, attended PILC as Society of Indian Psychology (SIP)
representative, current SIP President Professor, Department of Psychology, VCLS 208L,
Washington State University, Vancouver, 14204 Salmon Creek Ave., Vancouver, WA 98686,
phone: 360-546-9038, email: art.blume@vancouver.wsu.edu
Applicant 3. Linda Forrest, Ph.D., attended PILC as member of BAPPI, past member of the
APA Ethics Committee and Chair of the EMPA/APA Ethics Initiative, Professor Emerita,
University of Oregon, 3831 Woodson Court, Eugene, OR 97405. Phone: 541-729-7440,
email: forrestl@uoregon.edu
3. Indicate if each applicant representative attended the PILC in November, 2015.
Applicant 1. Yes __XX_
No ___
Applicant 2. Yes __XX_
No ___
Applicant 3. Yes __XX
No ___
4. What is the health disparity/health equity issue that you are addressing and who is your target
audience (300 words maximum)?
The health equity issue addressed in this dissemination plan is the lack of any cultural
framework for understanding ethics within the current APA Ethics Code. This omission
contributes to health disparities in two significant ways: (a) it negatively impacts culturally
appropriate, ethical and effective service to ethnic minority communities, and (b) it perpetuates
disparities when the vast majority of service to minority communities is provided by white
psychologists who are unaware of the integrative nature of culture to all aspects of ethics. The
Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) membership has addressed this omission by reviewing
the principles and standards of the current APA Ethics Code with an eye to what is missing or
cultural incongruent. SIP members have developed descriptions and stories of when the APA
Ethics Code does not work for Native psychologists and their communities which have been
compiled and published as the SIP Commentary on the APA Ethics Code.
The BAPPI mission is a powerful message to find solutions to fundamental problems of human
justice and to promote equitable and just treatment of all segments of society. Their mission
includes dissemination of psychological knowledge and to support educational opportunities to
promote cultural sensitivity. As such they make an obvious partner for SIP whose mission is to
advocate for the well being of Native peoples. SIP has made dissemination of the SIP
Commentary a priority with the charge of “eliminating or counteracting the inherent bias that
frames ethics on every level of decision-making.” A Dissemination Committee has identified
two objectives: (a) transforming the psychology training curricula to include the knowledge that
all ethics are culturally framed, and (b) ensuring all mental health workers serving Native
communities have access to the SIP Commentary.
Thus, there are two target audiences that we plan to reach with the SIP Commentary: (a)
psychologists and other mental health providers serving Native communities whose
understanding of professional ethics code may impair recognition of the barriers they create in
the delivery of quality mental health care for Native people and (b) faculty and students who
are not aware of how culturally encapsulated the APA Ethics Code is in dominant cultural
values and philosophies.
5. What type of Dissemination Activity do you propose? (choose from the drop-down menu)
a. Campus event, classroom instruction, and/or presentation
b. Professional/Staff development sessions, e.g., webinars XXX
c. Conference, workshop, symposium or other related presentations
d. Community awareness events
e. Development of resources and informational materials XXX
f.
Social media events
g. Other - name the proposed activity: Dissemination of the Society of Indian
Psychologists’ Commentary on the APA Ethics Code and supplemental educational
resources to Directors of Mental Health agencies and Professional Psychology Training
Programs (clinical, counseling and school psychology doctoral programs)
6. Describe the proposed dissemination activity, including specific aims, approach and expected
outcomes (500 words maximum). Also, describe your evaluation plan (200 words maximum).
Research has documented the great disparity in health outcomes for illnesses, diagnosis and
treatment of American Indian and Alaska Native populations (AIAN). There is no other group who
is as uniformly underserved in the U.S. as the AIAN population. Much of the literature discusses a
lack of cultural competence, and more recently cultural humility that may lead to incorrect
diagnosis and decreased treatment compliance among AIAN populations. Cultural competence
speaks to an understanding of the cultural beliefs and systems community members may have
that may impact diagnosis and treatment whereas cultural humility refers to the ongoing process
of a treatment provider’s learning and understanding cultural belief systems. Currently much
diagnosis and treatment is conducted from a white ethnocultural medical model perspective that
does little to consider the importance of cultural underpinnings in providing quality service to AIAN
population. This is complicated by the vast differences in AIAN populations. With over 500
different tribes and 300 different languages it would be difficult indeed to understand all groups.
However, there are some overarching cultural indices that they share. Some include the
importance of relationships both immediate (community) and long term (seven generations past or
yet to come), the importance of the connection to nature, and the importance of spirituality, as
opposed to religion, in everyday life. These very basic and important cultural worldviews are not
reflected in the APA Ethics Code and are discussed in detail in the SIP Ethics Commentary.
Our specific aims are:
1. To help educators understand these important issues and have tools to train the next
generation of psychologists to be cognoscente of the importance of cultural competence and
cultural humility using the SIP Ethics Commentary as a springboard for learning.
2. To help mental health program directors and providers understand these issues and have tools
to train current employees to better understand the importance of cultural competence and
cultural humility using the SIP Ethics Commentary as a springboard for learning.
3. Utilize evaluation outcomes to develop further trainings.
Description of Evaluation Plan: When the SIP Commentary and supplemental educational
resources are distributed to a sample of the Directors of Training of Clinical, Counseling and
School Psychology APA accredited programs included in the email packet will be pre and post
evaluation forms to be filled out by Ethics course instructors and students in their courses. Mental
Health Program Directors from health care agencies that serve predominately AIAN populations
will be sent the program packets as well. A link to the online pre-test and post-test will be sent to
all of the directors. Follow up friendly reminder emails will be sent two times and one phone call
will be utilized to obtain the most optimal return rate and feedback. Questions on the evaluation
will closely match the learning objectives outlined in the supplemental educational resources.
Outcomes from the evaluation and consultations with the APA Ethics Committee and Gayle
Morse, 2016 Chair of BAPPI will be used to develop a more comprehensive training program, an
ultimate outcome of this proposal.
7. What is the total proposed budget for this activity (up to $4,000.00 for individual projects and
up to $6,000.00 for collaborative projects)?
Total Request $ 6,000
Cost to purchase 50 electronic copies of the SIP Commentary for distribution to Directors of
Training of Professional Psychology training programs
$20/copy X 50 copies = $2,500
Request $10/copy X 50 copies = $1,250
SIP in kind contribution $10/copy X 50 copies = $1,250
Cost to purchase 50 electronic copies of the SIP Commentary for distribution to Directors of
Health Agencies serving AIAN populations
$20/copy X 50 copies = $2,500
Request $10/copy X 50 copies = $1,250
SIP in kind contribution $10/copy X 50 copies = $1,250
Purchase 2 ISBN # (one for an electronic version and one for print version)
$125/ISBN #
Request $250
Stipends (Resource packet development)
Request $250
Travel to Conference to Present on SIP Commentary:
Indian Health Services National Behavioral Health Conference
Request $ 2,000
Webinar Development for CE Workshop
Request $1,000
Online Survey Access for Evaluation Surveys
$300 Donated by The Sage Colleges (Gayle Morse, Associate Professor)
8. What is the proposed timeline for completion of this activity? Indicate major milestones. Note
that all funded activities must be completed within 12 months from date of award. Awards are
expected to be made no later than October 1, 2016.
Develop supplemental instructional resources that support the utliization of the SIP
Commentary, Oct-Dec, 2016 (Members of the APA Ethics Committee with ethics expertise
and BAPPI with diversity expertise will serve as consultants in the development of these
supplemental educational resources)
Develop evaluation plan to assess outcomes for mental health clinics and training programs,
instructors, and students, Oct-Dec, 2016
Pilot test the SIP Commentary with supplemental instructional resources, December, 2016
Revise the supplemental educational resources based on pilot testing, January, 2017
Cover letter, SIP Commentary, and supplemental resources distributed to Directors, February,
2017
Collect evaluations from Directors of Mental Health Clinics and Directors of Training/Ethics
Instructors about the utilization and outcomes associated with using the SIP Commentary and
supplemental resources, April-June, 2017 (Gayle Morse, 2016 BAPPI Chair, will serve as a
consultant for the evaluations)
Analyze and write up evaluation data, July-August, 2017
Develop CE Workshop, June-July, 2017 (Members of APA Ethics Committee and Gayle
Morse 2016 Chair of BAPPI will serve as consultants for developing workshop materials)
Conduct CE Workshop for Ethics course instructors on SIP Commentary and supplemental
resources, APA Convention, August, 2017
Develop CE Webinar (based on pilot CE workshop at APA convention), September, 2017
Develop strategies for disseminating results via blogs, newsletters, other mechanisms, and
develop updated training module based on evaluation. September, 2017
Write and submit final report to funding agency, APA Ethics Committee and BAPPI,
November, 2017
9. What entity will be the responsible financial home for the award (the organization that will
receive the award and maintain fiscal responsibility for the award)? Also, please affirm the PI
applicant divisions/groups have agreed to the work proposed.
Responsible Financial Home: Society of Indian Psychologists
XX Yes, I affirm the PI applicant divisions/groups have agreed to the work proposed.
___ No, I cannot affirm the PI applicant divisions/groups have agreed to the work proposed.
