Tough Fight Ahead

Psychologists in Florida are hot on the heals of their counterparts in New Mexico and Louisiana, strongly lobbying for prescriptive authority.

A May 12 Florida Psychological Association press release declares that indeed “Florida will likely be one of the next states to join New Mexico and Louisiana.”

The legislative fight expected during the next session, which begins this fall, will likely be difficult, said Margo Adams, the Florida Psychiatric Society's executive director. She pointed out that the American Psychological Association president for 2005, Ron Levant, Ed.D., is chair of the department of psychology at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. This university, she noted, “is the home of the `five weekends and you're done' program for prescribing psychologists,” which competes for psychologists with Sam Feldman's Prescribing Psychologists Registry in Miami.

Bills similar to the New Mexico and Louisiana laws have been under development over the last two legislative sessions, and the Florida Psychological Association is strongly lobbying that prescribing privileges would increase access to “quality affordable health care to many of Florida's citizens,” Adams quoted.

The Florida Psychiatric Society is working closely with the staff of APA's Department of Government Relations to proactively develop and implement a sound strategy to defeat the expected introduction of a prescribing bill.