Board Taps APA Veteran To Be Next Medical Director
James Scully, M.D., participated in APA’s fall component meetings last month in Washington, D.C., where the announcement of his appointment was first made.
APA President Paul Appelbaum, M.D., made the announcement last month at the plenary session of the fall component meetings in Washington, D.C.
“We are absolutely delighted that Jay Scully will be the next medical director of APA,” Appelbaum told Psychiatric News. “He is probably the single most qualified person in the United States to assume this role, having served as [APA] deputy medical director, a training director, a department chair, and a member and director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has been at the nexus of all of the major issues in contemporary psychiatry. We are very lucky to have him.”
Mirin told Psychiatric News that he was also very pleased at the choice of his successor and looked forward to working with Scully to effect a comfortable transition.
Mirin added, “It is a tribute to the members of the search committee, headed by Dr. Herb Pardes, that they were able to present such a well-rounded candidate, by virtue of his training, background, and experience, to the Board for its approval.”
“I’m very excited to be coming home,” said Scully, currently the Alexander G. Donald Professor and chair of the department of neuropsychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He is no stranger to either the Washington, D.C., area or to APA. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and from 1992 to 1996 was a deputy medical director of APA and director of its Office of Education.
He also is an APA fellow and the senior delegate and chair of APA’s delegation to the AMA, as well as a member of the Task Force on Competency in Graduate Education. He is a director and treasurer of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE). He has been an active member of the Colorado Psychiatric Society, the Washington (D.C.) Psychiatric Society, and the South Carolina Psychiatric Association, as well as the South Carolina Medical Association and the AMA.
Scully is also a member of the Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry and chair of the Education Committee of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is the author of more than 30 journal articles, chapters, and book sections and has edited each of the four editions of Psychiatry, published by Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.
In addition to his current appointments at the University of South Carolina, he is director of the division of education, training, and research for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and served as interim director of the department from 2000 to 2001. He also previously directed the department’s William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute.
While at APA, Scully held clinical appointments at George Washington University School of Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Prior to 1992, he held appointments at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, as well as the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver.
Scully graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed an internship at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Before going on to complete his residency in psychiatry at the University of Colorado, he served in the U.S. Navy as a submarine medical officer, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.
A Sense of Belonging
Scully noted that he faces several significant challenges as he takes the helm of APA at year’s end. He is ready to face, he said, budget constraints, declining membership, and stress and tension in the central office connected to the relocation of APA headquarters and to the significant restructuring of the central office and APA components.
“Clearly the challenges are to continue to function and improve our service to the field of psychiatry and to our members in a time of budget constraints that are severe,” Scully said. “But I know that we have an extraordinary staff in the central office that is dedicated and talented, so I’m looking forward to working with them to meet these challenges.”
APA is a “great organization,” Scully said, and his primary goal is to make APA “the premiere medical specialty organization” in the United States.
On APA’s declining membership, Scully noted, APA is no different from many other professional societies, perhaps even faring a bit better.
“One aspect that I had hoped to see post–9/11,” Scully said, “particularly from the younger—the X—generation was perhaps some reinvestment in pursuing organizational cohesion. It is an interesting generation, in that they are very invested and highly committed, yet they do not tend to join the old-line organizations.”
He hopes to change that by reinforcing a basic need that he sees in all psychiatrists. Psychiatrists, he feels, have been marginalized in the medical community for so long that even though they are “full-fledged members of medicine,” they are often not perceived as “real doctors.”
Part of the benefit of belonging to APA is that the organization offers collegiality, a place to belong, Scully said.
“APA is that place. APA needs to be filling those needs, but we need to know how to do that better,” he added.
“We offer our members world-class publications and world-class meetings—the best that there are. But you can get that whether you are a member or not. . . .What you get as a member is that sense of collegiality, of belonging to something bigger than yourself.”
Within psychiatry, it is not only patients who feel isolation and stigma, Scully said. “Psychiatrists have been stigmatized also. They have been in medicine; they have been in the media. You know when someone gets a mental illness, they don’t choose that illness. But when someone treats mental illness, that represents a conscious choice. And part of that choice is knowing that you are going to have to deal with certain attitudes and stigma. I honor that choice. And APA honors that choice in supporting all psychiatrists.”
Challenging Times
Scully will work with the Board of Trustees, Assembly, and staff to identify ways to give members better value for their dollar.
“Times are tough,” Scully said. “The budget’s tight. But in a sense that’s always the case because you always want to do more than you have the resources to do.”
Thus, Scully plans to work with the Board members in implementing priorities they set in spending and direction. “We’ll help inform them of the consequences for various decisions, and we’ll carry out those decisions. Now in some areas, we’ll still need to grow, even as we cut back in others. In a growing, thriving organization, there’s learning to do. It’s a living thing, an organic thing—hence the root of the term ‘organization’—and therefore highly dynamic. Yes, we need to be more efficient, but above all we must be more effective.”
Since he left APA’s central office in 1996, Scully said that he has gained “tremendous experience.” “I’ve gained more experience in vital areas, having been challenged with ever-increasing responsibilities,” he said. “But I’m not much different than I was—my style is pretty much the same.”
APA is also fundamentally the same, he said.
“The challenges, the tasks, they are still the same as they have always been, since 1844,” he observed. “Service to the mentally ill, through service to the profession—that is APA’s mission. We champion our patients through our members.”
That service, while fundamentally unchanged, is more complex in today’s world, Scully noted, “where you have to do more with less.”
Scully said that he is looking forward to working with what he considers an excellent team. “I’ve been blessed with the people I get to work with,” he said. “I was blessed when I was at APA in its education office, I have been blessed with a great group at South Carolina, and I know that it will be true again, returning to APA.” ▪
