1999  Patricia Rose, Ph.D.

When President-Elect Patricia Braden declined to serve as President, Ain Roost talked me into taking the job.  I’d been on the Board for two years as secretary and was perfectly happy I was rotating off the Board.  However, I feel fortunate--even with the difficulties of the year—to have served.  Dave DiCicco, who chaired the Past Presidents Council offered to meet with me regularly in order to provide guidance.  My goals were to involve our 500 members in committees and further the mission of SDPA.

However, when Bonnie Hammell, who’d served as SDPA President in 1996, committed suicide, it was a horrific shock.  Bonnie left family members, clients and colleagues with the pain of her loss, and SDPA did what it could to provide support.  SDPA’s attorney, Jim Rogers, said he couldn’t believe that Bonnie hadn’t left a “professional will” regarding the care of her clients.  During this same time, several other SDPA members died, making it clear that as psychologists we needed professional directives.  Tom McGee agreed to chair a task force to locate such a document for our members.  It turns out nothing like this existed, so the task force created one.  Our Association was the first.  In 2014 the APA accepted our document and published it, crediting SDPA.

Other events of 1999 included support for the lawsuit that the APA brought against insurance companies who weren’t providing the care they advertised.  Each SDPA member was assessed $10 to help pay for the lawsuit, which was eventually settled out of court.  We won—a moral victory, no $$.

At the end of 1999, Ain Roost conceived of Psychology 2000, a vehicle for volunteering and providing psychological services to those caught in the middle without insurance.  Jacqueline Landis was hired as the new Administrator.  SDPA had $60,000 in a savings account.  2000 promised to be a very good year.