Richard Yep, CEO of ACA
T The strength of a group is not measured by what its members do for themselves, but by their humanity to help others. Over the past two months, I have seen the care and compassion of our members and countless other psychiatric professionals time and time again. Thousands wanted to know how to help their customers, students, and communities.
The ACA 2020 Conference & Expo was scheduled to take place last month. April is also the time when we celebrate the month of counseling awareness. Given the planning for these two events, who could have predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic would make them deviate so much from their original path? Granted, many of us had to overcome the shock of how much change we would experience. But very quickly, the amount of professional consultants who wanted to know how to continue helping their clients, PhD students, and others made me so incredibly proud to work for such a compassionate group of people.
The corona virus serves as a turning point for all of us, raising questions about how we work, how we communicate, and how we socialize. Some are dealing with children now attending the "online home school". Others discover how isolating it is to be at home 24/7. I'm expecting Netflix and other entertainment channels to see a surge in viewership, and I'm also ready to speculate that many of us are taking more walks in the neighborhood than ever before. We have also seen an incredible reduction in pollution in major cities in India and other parts of the world because people followed directions to stay at home.
It was really a completely unusual, bizarre, self-enlightening and reflective time. I encourage professional counselors, counselor educators and postgraduates to think about how all of this could lead to changes in the counseling profession. Perhaps you need to deal better with telehealth health? Will you be asked to work with people suffering from isolation and depression when we are forced into this situation again? Do we have to strengthen our advocacy group so that these decrees do not rely on the governors' emergency declarations to lift certain restrictions on your practical ability, but are instead enshrined in laws and regulations? What role do professional school advisors play in addressing the many aspects of schools that are closed over a longer period of time?
We all hope that we will never have to face the challenges we face with the COVID-19 pandemic. But we have to be prepared for what we will do if something like this happens again. Similar to the transition from a world before September 11 to a world after September 11, we will now live in a world after COVID-19.
A lot is written about how the world reacted to the corona virus. I strongly recommend that we start discussions as a profession that leads to lessons learned and approves protocols that can be implemented in emergencies. Obtaining a common understanding of the profession is of course important, but it is even more important for the millions of children, adolescents, adults, couples and families with whom counselors work.
ACA volunteer leaders and staff mobilized the resources needed to meet the urgent needs of our members. For example, we have offered 15 CE sessions that are free for both members and non-members (available at aca.digitellinc.com/aca). This package included a session that was being held during the pandemic: "COVID-19 and Telebehavioral Health: Ethical Considerations During a Public Health Emergency." We were amazed that more than 7,000 consultants signed up within the first 24 hours of announcing the availability of the sessions, and the number continued to increase in the following days.
We heard from members that their state governors needed to lift restrictions that prevented them from continuing to advise clients on telebehavioral health practices. Our employees have created a sample letter that advisers can use to communicate with their governors about the challenge.
I hope that you were all moved or inspired by something you saw in the consulting profession during this challenging time. Please email me examples of how the advisory community came together as the COVID-19 pandemic increased.
I wish all of you all the best for your health and that the future will be better and more hopeful. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your great work. Even my traditional approval for this column is more important.
As always, I look forward to your comments, questions and thoughts. Call me at 800-347-6647. 231 or email me at [email protected]. You can also follow me on Twitter: @Richyep.
Be healthy.
