Skip main navigation
Close Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
APA Publishing Logo

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has updated its Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including with new information specifically addressed to individuals in the European Economic Area. As described in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, this website utilizes cookies, including for the purpose of offering an optimal online experience and services tailored to your preferences.

Please read the entire Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. By closing this message, browsing this website, continuing the navigation, or otherwise continuing to use the APA's websites, you confirm that you understand and accept the terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including the utilization of cookies.

×
Back to table of contents
Association NewsFull Access

Members Turn Ideas To Action

Washington, D.C. Fall Component Meetings September 11-14, 2003
Published Online:3 Oct 2003https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.38.19.0029

APA President Marcia Goin, M.D., welcomes hundreds of members who volunteer their time and knowledge to serve on the Association's commitees and councils.

Approximately 300 APA members arrived in Washington, D.C., last month to participate in the Association’s annual fall component meetings and to work on issues of importance to APA and the field of psychiatry and its patients. About 60 components tackled issues in such areas as child and adolescent, addiction, forensic, and international psychiatry; health care systems and financing; the practice of psychiatry; patient safety; research; advocacy and public policy; and medical education.

APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., presents Psychiatric News Executive Editor Catherine Brown with this year’s Melvin Sabshin Award, which honors an APA employee for service above and beyond the call of duty.

A highlight of the fall component meetings was the plenary session held on Saturday, September 13 (see facing page). APA President Marcia Goin, M.D., invited Tom Hamilton, Ph.D., past president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) Texas, to talk about how he had used 30 years of experience in the business world to the fight against the criminalization of people with mental illness in Texas.

Tom Hamilton, Ph.D., past president for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, tells component members how he successfully lobbied the Texas legislature to enhance mental health services for nonviolent offenders with mental illness.

APA President Marcia Goin, M.D., commented at the conclusion of the weekend, “Everyone worked hard, and members’ dedication to the profession and their patients was palpable. You could see it reflected in their attention and response to Tom Hamilton, NAMI’s liaison to APA’s Corresponding Committee on Jails and Prisons, when during the plenary session Tom spelled out a problem in access and described a successful advocacy response. These meetings are integral to APA’s mission of improving the lives of mentally ill Americans and working toward the goal of ensuring they have access to the mental health care they need. Without the commitment of the many members who serve on APA components—on the national and local levels—APA would not be able to address so many important issues to the breadth and depth we are now able to do.”

Katharine Phillips, M.D., contributes to a conversation on new book ideas during the APPI Editorial Advisory Board meeting.

John Talbott, M.D., editor of Psychiatric Services, joins a discussion at the meeting of the American Psychiatric Press Inc. Editorial Advisory Board.

At the meeting of the Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, Bruce Jan Schawrtz, M.D. (left); Becky Yowell, APA staff liason; and Paul Wick, M.D., grapples with reimbursement issues, which the committee considers to be one of the top items on its agenda.