Andrew Gluck is a veteran financial reporter and the founder and CEO of Advisor Products Inc., a marketing company serving 1,800 financial advisory firms.| Suicides Linked To Economic Crisis Spike In Europe; Meanwhile, Here At Home, American Psychological Assocation Offers No Special Training For Psychologists To Treat Problems Related To Money |
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| Monday, April 16, 2012 17:07 |
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The suicide rate rose by 24% in Greece and 16% in Ireland between 2007 and 2009, according to The New York Times, and, in Italy, suicides by men related to financial issues between 2005 and 2010 spiked 52%. As the human toll excted by the global financial crisis becomes more evident, here in the U.S., the American Psychological Association (APA) provides no special training equipping psychologists to help people suffering anxiety, depression, and other disorders related to money problems. This Website Is For Financial Professionals OnlyThe APA‘s annual Stress In America survey is noteable for its failure to address the fact that money is the No. 1 stressor cited by Americans.
The analysis presented by APA in this year’s survey is thorough in its treatment of stress across different genders, age groups, gerographic regions, and cities. But APA’s analysis of the survey data buries the fact that the No. 1 cause of stress cited by 75% of Americans is money.
The failure of the APA's annual report to address the prominence of money problems in the lives of Americans is consistent with a pattern of failure by association to devote proper attention to money problems.
Dr. Mary Gresham, an Atlanta psychologist, who has petitioned APA to create a financial division, says psychologists currently receive no specialized training equipping them to help patients suffering from anxiety, depression, and other disorders triggered by financial woes.
That the APA must be petitioned to add training for psychologists on money issues hints at APA’s institutional resistance to creating a new specialization and body of knowledge in psychology that could help Americans better cope with money problems.
Gresham, in an interview, says APA staff and leadership for months fiddled with her requests to post her petition to create the new division on its website. According to Gresham, she had to call APA staffers every week for months before her petition was finally posted to the APA website.
APA has 54 divisions and adding another division would reduce funding available to those already in existence. So staff and leadership at APA have not supported Gresham’s effort, even though it obviously merits attention.
The increased rate of suicide related to financial woes is likely not just a European problem. It is a problem faced by all developed countries suffering from the financial crisis that began in 2007. Money and the stress it causes is a a consequence of modern life.
APA has an opportunity to do something about the problem in America. Please contact psychologists you know and ask them to sign Gresham’s petition to add a financial division to APA. Below is an email you can send to psychologists to ask them to sign her petition.
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