Summary of Texas Organizations
Leaders of the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians (TSPP) and other Texas psychiatrists have participated in the formation of a new structure for organized psychiatry in the state that has drawn a strong, negative reaction from the APA leadership (see story on Original article: page 9). The three key components in this structure are the TSPP, Texas Academy of Psychiatry, and Federation of Texas Psychiatry.
TSPP is the state's APA district branch (DB), and APA policy requires, as is the case for all DBs, that a psychiatrist join both the district branch and the national APA. TSPP members continue to receive the benefits of both DB and APA membership. | |||||
The Texas Academy of Psychiatry, formed during the summer, is an organization for individual psychiatrists whose dues are the same as those for TSPP, but which does not require membership in APA. The academy's members will receive benefits that are similar to those TSPP members get from the DB. Academy members will not, however, receive APA benefits such as subscriptions to the American Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric News and reduced fees for CME activities and registration at APA annual meetings. | |||||
The Federation of Texas Psychiatry is a nonprofit umbrella group whose members are organizations in the psychiatric field, though it may open membership to interested nonpsychiatric organizations such as those involved in advocacy. The federation's staff is the former staff of the TSPP, who resigned their posts and now provide administrative support to the TSPP under a contract between the federation and TSPP. TSPP is sharing office space with the federation and the academy. The exact services that the federation will provide to TSPP had not been finalized at press time. | |||||
“The federation will provide the means for TSPP and the academy to share programs and work together,” wrote Conway McDanald, M.D., chair of the Federation Delegate Assembly, in the October/November Texas Psychiatrist. “Thus, by uniting the two major psychiatric organzations in Texas, the voice and influence of psychiatry will be strengthened....How you choose to participate is your choice. TSPP and the academy are both outstanding organizations working for Texas psychiatry.”
