The Advocacy Committee is a committee of the BC Psychological Association. Members of the Advocacy Committee are BCPA volunteers responsible for bringing advocacy matters to the attention of the Association, attending advocacy meetings with government and other stakeholders, elaborating and carrying out advocacy initiatives. The Chair is Dr. David Mensink.

Advocacy Topics

Just in the past two years, BCPA has advocated for psychologists and their clients by doing the following:

• Submissions to BC Government Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth advocating for a greater role for psychologists in youth mental healthcare (including support for the submission by BC's Pedistricians);
• Submissions to the BC Ministry of Health advocating for a greater role for psychologists in primary and community care;
• Submissions to the BC Supreme Court Rules Committee to protect the privacy of your clients’ records;
• Advocating to employers and unions for greater annual coverage limits ($2,000 per year) for psychological services covered by extended health plans;
• Engaging employers and unions at the CMHA Bottom Line Mental Health Conference and the Health Sciences Association (HSA) conference;
• At the HSA convention, former BCPA Advocacy Committee member Dr. Kelly Price worked to pass a resolution supporting psychologists working in provincial autism clinics; 
• Reimbursement by third-party payers (insurance, Veterans Affairs, ICBC, etc.);
• Advocating for improved salaries and benefits for Health Authority Psychologists to enhance recruitment and retention;
• Meeting with Ministry of Health to support improved access to Psychologists;
• Meeting with Doctors of BC to collaborate on mental health and substance use needs of physicians’ patients and how psychologists can ease the burden on family physicians; 
• Dr. Wolfgang Linden represents BCPA on the Mental Health Alliance, which is an interdisciplinary group of lay and professional people collaborating and advocating for mental health and substance use services for British Columbians.

To get involved and find out more, please log in. Once you are logged in, you will be able to access further information at the bottom of this page. To become a member of this Committee, please fill in this form.