Monitor on Psychology - December 2011 - (Page 24)

“That Dr. Zeiss has become the head of the VA’s mental health system, with an annual budget of $6 billion and 20,000 professional staff, is a tremendous personal accomplishment for her and a huge stride forward for our field.” Randy PhelPs APA Practice Direstorate psychologists in a VA pay system similar to that of physicians. APA also annually co-sponsors the VA Psychology Leadership Conference, now in its 15th year, which encourages psychologists to move into key leadership positions in the VA health system. “That Dr. Zeiss has become the head of the VA’s mental health system, with an annual budget of $6 billion and 20,000 professional staff, is a tremendous personal accomplishment for her and a huge stride forward for our field,” says Phelps. Growing up in Santa Cruz, Calif., in the 1950s, Zeiss saw limited career choices for women. But she decided she’d major in psychology at Stanford University, and one of her first classes was an introductory psychology course taught by eminent psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, PhD. “I saw this amazing psychologist elegantly balancing work and family, and I knew I’d found a new and exciting home in which to build a career,” says Zeiss. At Stanford, she worked in the lab of personality psychologist Walter Mischel, PhD, and met the man who would become her husband, psychologist Robert Zeiss, PhD. Once married, they both headed to the University of Oregon for graduate school. She then worked as an assistant professor, doing clinical research, first at Arizona State University, then back at Stanford University as a visiting assistant professor, collaborating again with Mischel. But Stanford had closed its clinical program years earlier and Zeiss felt her work was too removed from patients so, after a year, she applied for a job as a clinical researcher at VA Palo Alto where her husband worked. She started out in the Center for Study of Psychotherapy and Aging. After a few months, she took a position as leader at VA Palo Alto for a national VA resource program, Interdisciplinary Team Training in Geriatrics — one of 12 such programs in the VA system. She stayed in this position for 11 years, as it developed and supported interdisciplinary team training and service delivery throughout the system, not just in geriatric settings. “I loved what the VA was doing,” says Zeiss, who worked to develop interdisciplinary teams to serve veterans of all ages and service eras. “The program was really innovative, thinking about how to create an effective team that includes psychology, 24 pharmacology, nursing, social work, medicine and often many other disciplines as well.” In 1996, she became clinical director of psychology and training director for psychology interns and postdocs at VA Palo Alto. And later when then-President George H.W. Bush released the “President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health Report,” calling for a transformation of the mental health care system and a new emphasis on recovery, Zeiss was asked by leadership at VA Central Office to be part of the team implementing the report’s recommendations at the VA. In 2004, as she worked on the VA’s strategic plan for expanding and transforming mental health services, she heard about an opening at the central office for a deputy chief consultant in the Office of Mental Health Services. She held that positon beginning in 2005. That office develops policies and programs to serve veterans’ mental health needs. Now, as head of that department, Zeiss works hand-in-hand with Schohn, whose office works directly with clinicians in the field to apply the policies that Zeiss’s office develops. “They need to work closely together to make sure the policies are implemented and executed,” says Agarwal. Together they are a formidable team, she adds. One priority the two are working on is tracking how well the nation’s VA treatment centers are executing the VA’s Uniform Mental Health Services Handbook, which defines the “essential components” of a comprehensive mental health program. These include holistic coordinated care, around-the-clock service, and care that is sensitive to gender and culture. “It’s a revolutionary document that ensures that sites can’t do really well in some things and neglect others completely,” Zeiss explains. She will also focus on implementing delivery of psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on evidence-based therapies. “Our emphasis is on psychotherapies that have the strongest evidence for effectiveness for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, schizophrenia,” she says. “We want to ensure that our staff is fully utilizing these therapies and that the people delivering them have sufficient training to use them with fidelity.” n Beth Azar is a writer in Portland, Ore. Monitor on psychology • DeceMber 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - December 2011

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Willpower Pioneer Wins $100,000 Grawemeyer Prize
Single-Sex Schooling Called Into Question by Prominent Researchers
Maternal Depression Stunts Childhood Growth, Research Suggests
For Boys, Sharing May Seem Like a Waste of Time
Good News for Postdoc Applicants
In Brief
Treatment Guideline Development Now Under Way
Government Relations Update
Psychologist Named Va Mental Health Chief
The Limits of Eyewitness Testimony
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Deconstructing Suicide
Questionnaire
A Focus on Interdisciplinarity
A Time of ‘Enormous Change’
The Science Behind Team Science
Good Science Requires Good Conflict
A New Paradigm of Care
Speaking of Education
Science Directions
New Labels, New Attitudes?
Psychologist Profile
Early Career Psychology
Unintended Consequences
Better Options for Troubled Teens
Saving Lives, One Organ at a Time
New Journal Editors
APA News
Division Spotlight
Guidelines for the Conduct of President-Elect Nominations and Elections
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011