District Branch Presidents Report to Board

Two district branch presidents, Victoria Dreisbach, D.O., of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society and Nestor Galarza, M.D., of the Puerto Rico Psychiatric Society described several key initiatives for APA Trustees at last month's Board meeting.

Dreisbach described a successful effort to make sure a psychologist-prescribing bill never made it out of committee in the Connecticut legislature. She noted that alliances with other physician groups played a large role in the bill's demise. She noted that the district branch is building a “proactive network” to be ready to go into battle when the bill resurfaces in a future session.

Galarza noted that the district branch has joined with the Puerto Rico Bar Association to fight the death penalty, has upgraded its presence in the media and improved its Web site, and is gearing up to respond to an anticipated bill to allow psychologists to prescribe. He also noted that due to several financial factors unique to Puerto Rico and sharply declining membership, the district branch will be sending APA a request to lower its dues for Puerto Rican psychiatrists.