Update from AACAP Conference in New York City - Oct 24-29

An update from Robert Samery - VP PAAO, who attended the 57th AACAP Annual Conference in New York City this week with PAAO President - Jill Egizi.  (AACAP stands for the "American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry" and is the pre-eminent professional association of many court appointed evaluators and behavioural assessors.)  In photo below Jill and Robert are shown engaging in discussion with one of the attendees at the Conference.  As a Board, we decided it was extremely important that PAAO be present at this event to help make the case for including PAD in DSM-V (the influential Handbook and Manual for Professional Psychiatrists).   We received tremendous assistance from many members of PAAO's Advisory Board including: Dr. Amy Baker, Dr Richard Sauber and Dr. Michael Bone (also Dr. William Bernet who despite not being on the Advisory Board was instrumental in pitching Jill on our involvement).  All  made themselves available throughout the Conference taking turns answering queries and even helped staff our information display.

[We are asking all PAAO Supporters for their help in covering the US$5,000 we have budgeted for this exhibition space and associated promotional materials.  Each conference attendee received our regular brochure and some extra material about PAAO.   Our two board members who attended, setup, staffed the display and "spread the word" all paid their own conference expenses including travel, lodging and incidentals.  I am going to boldly suggest a very generous donation of $100 per PAAO supporter.   (But of course, everyone must decide what they can afford.)  As PAAO runs such a tight ship unless we recoup this expense, we will not be able to fund any other upcoming events.  All are important in gaining acceptance of PAD for DSM-V.  And remember, PAAO qualifies for a charitable tax receipt in either Canada and the US, where ever the donor is resident.]

Here is Robert's dispatch:


Hello all,

From rainy New York I can report the following from the AACAP conference.

After a tiring day of both delayed travel, and heavy setup on Tuesday,
Jill and I met back at the exhibit hall this morning. We seemed to be
talking to at least 1 person interested in PA issues throughout the
entire day. We were helped enormously by Michael Jeffries, who is an
extremely articulate advocate.

We a small portion of the 4700 delegates at the conference, and they
came from all points in N. America as well as the UK, Sweden,
Portugal, Spain, Brazil, France, Peru, Costa Rica, (and I may have
missed a country or 2).

Of those that spoke with us, most were aware of the issue, and a few
were happy to learn there is a name to what they have been seeing.
Many also expressed a real joy in seeing that we were even on the list
of exhibitors. That gives me a tremendous confidence in knowing that
we have done a great deal of good by even just showing up.

I'm sending you a picture of Jill, Michael and me speaking to 1 of the
many who came by to hear about what we do.

I'll try and send more of an update tomorrow.

Psychiatric experts assess parental alienation

From article in AP Newswire:

Psychiatric experts assess parental alienation

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

Oct 1, 2010
NEW YORK     (AP) -- The American Psychiatric Association has a hot  potato on its hands as it updates its catalog of mental disorders -  whether to include parental alienation, a disputed term conveying how a  child's relationship with one estranged parent can be poisoned by the other.

"We're gotten an enormous amount of mail - more than any other issue," said Dr. Darrel Regier, vice chair of the task force drafting the manual. "The passions on both sides of this are exceptional."

"There is not sufficient scientific evidence to warrant its inclusion in the DSM," Regier said in a statement.

In an interview, Regier - who directs the APA's research division - said the proposal technically remains alive pending final presentations by the end of 2011. But he described chances for inclusion of parental alienation as "slim" - given that it has not been selected for field trials that normally would be a prerequisite for official recognition.

Meier, the George Washington law professor, has urged judges to be cautious in how they allow the topic to be raised in cases where one estranged parent is accused by the other of abuse.

She said the initial impetus for recognition of parental alienation syndrome came in large part from the fathers' rights movement, but suggested much of the momentum now comes from psychologists, consultants and others who could profit if the concept had a more formal status in family court disputes.

"It's monetary," Kates said. "These psychologists and therapists make huge money doing the evaluations and therapies."

Obviously we are not making enough noise.

Upcoming Events/Conferences

This is a reminder to everyone about some of the important Upcoming Events taking place worldwide.

Sat Oct 2 + Sun Oct 3, 2010 CPAS Conference, Mt. Sinai Medical Center NYC
http://cspas.ca/program_times.shtml

Oct 28-30, 2010 AFCC's Ninth Symposium on Child Custody Evaluations, Cambridge/Boston MA.
http://afccnet.org/pdfs/AFCC%20Cambridge.pdf

Fri Nov 12 - Sun Nov 14, 2010 CEPC Conference - KEEP (Kids Expect Equal Parenting) Toronto ON
http://www.canadianepc.com/portal/index.php

Feb 25, 2011 - Richard WARSHAK in Calgary AB

February 25, 2011 Dr. Warshak will conduct an all-day continuing education workshop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, at the request of The Psychologists' Association of Alberta (PAA). Topic: "Welcome Back, Pluto: The Psychology of Families with Alienated and Estranged Children and the ...Principles, Procedures, and Ethical Considerations of Effective Help." PAA's mission is to advance the science-based profession of psychology and to promote the well-being and potential of all Albertans. For more Info please click the link. 

 

http://www.warshak.com/events/index.html 

Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos - PA Legal Intrepretation Expert

I ran across Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos website - and found it to be an exceptional source on the science of PA and its mis-use within the court system.  As a clinical psychologist and lawyer he is well equipped to cover this tricky area.   Dr. Lorandos successfully represented Georgia kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft in her May 2010 acquital of sexual molesting her 5yr-old daughter during a child custody battle.  The case was high profile because it featured a number of shorcomings in the "so-called" professional evaluation process as well as behaviours of judge and state prosecutors.

Here is the introduction of his talk at the 2009 PAS Symposium in Toronto.


(Here is his YouTube Account - of particular note is Part 4 that deals with his arguments in favour of  determining the "Scientific Validity" of PA within the Court Room.)

Do qualitative methods and PAS meet the Daubert criteria? You know, whats considered to be science? Well what are they? Testability, falsifiability, error rates, peer review, general acceptance, validity, reliability.

Well, whats testability? Its proof by disproof. Can we test ideas about parental alienation? Yeah, sure we can. PAS is certainly testable. Gardner described eight factors, we can test whether they exist or not. In fact Bricklin and Elliot are trying to develop inventories that have some inter-rater reliability and some test-retest reliability that can be used in family conflict circumstances. They can certainly test whether those are accurate or not. They can test whether or not they speak to a phenomenon of interest accurately or not. They can test whether or not inter-raters or test-retests find them to be reliable or not. 

New PAAO President - Jill Egizii

(Part 2 of this impassioned address is here)
Address to DC Rally Fest 2010 for Family Rights - U.S. Capitol - West Lawn, Wash., D.C.
Jill Egizii, Author of "The Look of Love" and Illinois alderman in Leland Grove, Illinois

Plight of Rejected Parents - Welcome Back, Pluto DVD Chapter 6

From Dr. Richard Warshak - author of "Divorce Poison".   You can find out more about this DVD and place an order at:  http://www.warshak.com/alienation/pluto-dvd.html

New Directors

Just wanted to thank everyone who voted for me and Rhonda to become newest Directors of PAAO (the founding organization). It is an excellent organization and I hope we can continue to build a stronger network of concerned parents and extended families within Western Canada.

For more info go to www.PAawareness.org.

Canadian Bar Association opposes Bill C422

The Family Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association has just released their analysis and position on Bill C422. As expected they continue to oppose the suggestion of Equal Parenting. I suppose I should not be surprised that they will continue to line their own pockets, it is just disappointing that they do not the great harm they are promoting.

Here was the press release.

On the first anniversary of C-422 passing First Reading, The Canadian Bar Association( CBA) has made a submission to the Justice and Human Rights Committee(JUST) regarding C-422(Equal Parenting) prepared by the Family Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA).

The CBA continues in its historical opposition to shared parenting as encapsulated in the following extract:

We oppose passage of Bill C-422. As lawyers with centuries of combined experience in family law and the operation of the Divorce Act, we believe the Bill would be a tremendous step backward in the development of family law. The Bill would represent a disservice both to children and families by:

• taking the focus away from children in favour of parental rights
• detracting from the individual justice required by the Divorce Act and,
  
• promoting further and more fractious litigation.

Here is a link to that document.

Rubin vs Lippe PAS case grabs attention

This case in the US has caught national if not international attention from anyone concerned about PAS. The mother Lauren Lippe is facing losing custody and possible jail-time (although I would consider 6 weeks as nothing more than a slap on the wrist) for her PAS behaviour. There was shocking testimony that convinced the judge - except I find it mind-numbing (not to mention bank-account chilling) that it took 23 days of court appearances.