History of CAPP

The following was written by CAPP’s very first president, Dr. Gary Schneider, on the 35th anniversary of CAPP in 2016…

It is amazing to realize that thirty-five years have passed since the formation of CAPP. The following stands out the most in my recollections of the early years.

I remember that nine psychologists met in various offices over several months until the very first official meeting at the home of George Wright. The initial driving forces that led to the creation of CAPP appeared to be: (1) The like-mindedness and increasing professionalism of clinical practitioners, particularly in private practice; (2) The perception that the only other local professional organization for psychologists, the Cincinnati Psychological Association (CPA), was not meeting all the needs of the clinical practitioners. CPA was more of an “umbrella” organization for all psychologists, including clinical practice, teaching, research, industrial/organizational consultation, etc; and (3) “Cleveland had one” referring to Cleveland having such an organization like the proposed CAPP. (Do you detect a tongue-in-cheek reference?)

To enhance the sense of solidarity with OPA and APA, the CAPP Board decided to require CAPP members to also be members of OPA and APA.

Some years later (probably early or mid-1980’s), there was a very well attended meeting at which time the term “managed care” was used for one of the first times. The speaker indicated that our local area would be one of the hardest hit by this new term (managed care). All we knew about this term was that it was associated with some vague entity zeroing in on limitations of subscriber’s benefits, case managing through treatment plans, and lowering reimbursement rates. For a group of practitioners who had achieved licensing only a few years before (1972), hearing this information led to a great deal of anxiety for all present. These concerns eventually led to the conclusion that that we needed to represent ourselves more effectively in the political arena. We hired a state lobbyist who explained to us that state legislators measured the amount of support “for” and “against” proposed legislation by measuring the height of the piles of mail “for” legislation and comparing these to the piles of mail “against” legislation. (Obviously, this phenomenon was light years before our new technology.)

The high level of anxiety led to fund raising efforts and CAPP raised more than $40,000! (Yes, the number of zeros is correct.) My recollection is that each psychologist was asked for a contribution of $1,000 and most contributors did give this amount. (Yes, this number of zeros is correct also.) One could ask oneself if there was any benefit to this fund raising effort as we see that managed care is still around and is accompanied by even lower reimbursement rates. However, that effort does display what a group of local psychologists can achieve, working together.

As I look back on these recollections, I wonder what future trends there will be as well as new opportunities for psychologists. Regardless of how these questions are answered, I think that the solidarity, viability and support by local groups, such as CAPP, and state and national organizations of psychologists, will probably be very important in continuing to shape our future as psychologists.

Gary A. Schneider, Ph.D.
CAPP’s First President, 1981