The Accreditation Panel is pleased to be able to present, in draft form, the 5th revision of the Accreditation Standards and Procedures for Doctoral Programmes and Internships in Professional Psychology. Members of the doctoral and internship training communities, as well as other faculty members, researchers, administrators, regulators, practitioners, and students in psychology are invited to review the draft revision and provide feedback.

Feedback will be accepted until January 15th, 2010.  The revisions made in the current draft document reflect issues and experiences that have evolved since the last revision.  These issues and experiences include those identified by the Accreditation Panel and Office, doctoral and internship programmes, the regulatory environment as well as the wider health policy and practice environment in Canada.

The Accreditation Panel will review the feedback received by January 15th for the purposes of creating a final draft of the 5th revision.  Note that the incorporation of stakeholder’ feedback into the final draft will be guided by whether a view or concern expressed is commonly held by respondents and consistent with the mandate and operating policies and procedures of the Association and the Accreditation Office. Note as well, that though the Accreditation Panel welcomes feedback from stakeholders in psychology nationally and internationally, its chief accountability is to the programmes the CPA accredits, namely the doctoral and internship programmes in professional psychology at Canadian universities and institutions and their faculty, administrators, and students.

The Accreditation Panel plans to be able to approve the final revision of the Standards and Procedures at its Spring 2010 meeting and recommend its approval to the CPA Board of Directors when they meet in June 2010.  Assuming Board approval in June 2010, programmes will be held accountable to the 5th revision through their self studies and annual reports for any due and/or submitted after January 2011.  Self studies or annual reports submitted before January 2011 can opt to follow the 4th revision standards and reporting forms. Please visit the Accreditation webpage for updates on the revision process.

After your review of the draft revision, as posted here, please provide feedback to the questions asked in their corresponding textboxes.  Should you have any additional questions or concerns about the revision process, feel free to contact Ann Marie Plante in the Accreditation Office at accreditationoffice@cpa.ca or 888-472-0657 or 613-237-2144, ext. 328.

Many thanks for your participation in the 5th revision.  The feedback from the psychology community is critical to its success.

Below is the full PDF for Review:

Draft Revision of the Accreditation Standards and Procedures for Doctoral Programmes and Internships in Professional Psychology, 2009

Below is a powerpoint document highlighting the changes to the Accreditation Standards and Procedures from the 2002 edition: