The Virginia Association for Psychological Science (VAPS) supports the petition for including Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) as an additional accreditor of doctoral degrees in psychology to the education requirements and regulations for licensure as a clinical psychologist in Virginia.

Clinical psychologists have routinely been recognized as the most highly trained mental health professionals. Adding PCSAS recognizes and further demonstrates the high quality mental health training.

The ongoing public efforts in expanding health-care coverage - with attention to containing costs and improving services - requires increased training in science-informed assessment and treatment. PCSAS is well-positioned to provide this training.

The public trust in clinical psychology is increased with a reliance on science-informed treatment. Utilizing the best data-supported methods in clinical psychology assure the public of high quality mental and behavioral health care.

Virginia has a long history as a home to branches of the armed forces and US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. The US Department of Veterans Affairs has already recognized PCSAS as a worthy and valuable accreditation program for clinical psychologists.

PCSAS enhances and strengthens the training of clinical psychologists. Virginia has demonstrated a history of exceedingly high standards for training and credentialing clinical psychologists. Other states with such high standards have already approved PCSAS (Illinois, Delaware, California, New Mexico, and New York). Recognizing PCSAS would demonstrate Virginia being on the forefront of continued high standards for clinical psychology training.

Finally, two of the prominent training programs for clinical psychologists in Virginia (University of Virginia- Psychology and Virginia Tech) have already met the stringent standards for PCSAS accreditation. Recognizing PCSAS will support future highly trained clinical psychologists remaining in the state and serving the public.

As an organization that supports and promotes psychological science in all forms, the Virginia Association for Psychological Science supports the petition to provide PCSAS parity with APA accreditation for clinical psychology licensure in Virginia.

L. Alan Eby, Psy.D. VAPS Immediate Past-President Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Signed on behalf of VAPS Executive Committee: Greg Koop, Ph.D. (President) Marilyn Gadomksi, Ph.D. (President-Elect) Virginia Mackintosh, Ph.D. (Treasurer) Craig Jackson, Ph.D. (Secretary)