APA Members at Work for their Patients and Colleaques
APA's fall component meetings are a key setting for 70 of the Association's councils, committees, and task forces to plan and discuss the initiatives that propel APA toward its goals on behalf of psychiatrists and their patients. Last month about 300 members came to Washington, D.C., to contribute their expertise on issues concerning children, minority patients, the elderly, and people in jails and prisons, among others. Psychiatric research, forensic and legal issues, addiction treatment, and advocacy were also the focus of dozens of council and committee meetings.
Marc Graff, M.D., chair of the Committee on Public Affairs (far right), along with Denis Milke, M.D., Sul Thorward, M.D., and James Maier, M.D., listen to an overview of the new strategic plan for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs.
Iqbal Ahmed, M.D., chair of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Elderly, discusses the development of a curriculum on cultural competence in geriatric psychiatry in the evaluation and treatment of the elderly. Looking on is Yolanda Coleman, M.D.
A plenary session on Saturday, September 11, featured APA President Michelle Riba, M.D., who emphasized how critical it is for APA to have a forceful strategy to respond to the extremely well-funded effort by psychologists to prescribe psychoactive medications to prevent additional states from taking the road paved by New Mexico and Louisiana. “The day I took office in May as APA president, the governor of Louisiana signed the bill allowing psychologists to prescribe in that state,” she noted.“ While the action took many of us by surprise, the passage of the bill took years of careful planning, years of considerable resources, and political capital on the part of the psychologists. At the June meeting of the APA Board, we focused on this issue. We brought in knowledgeable leaders from other medical groups who convinced us that the psychologists have allocated large sums of money and have a long-term, multistate strategy. They are very aggressive and persistent... .It is therefore critical for our membership and for our patients that we forcefully address this issue and develop a meaningful strategy to respond.” And APA's years-long effort to halt the psychologists' prescribing campaign, which has led to the defeat of such bills in states throughout the country, Riba said, is being enhanced and strengthened. She said she intends to involve all APA members in planning APA's future response to this critical concern for psychiatrists and patients.▪
Scott Kim, M.D., is a member of a task force of the APA Ethics Committee. The task force is rewriting the annotations to APA's code of ethics.
Anita Everett, M.D. (left), and Cille Kennedy, Ph.D., discuss the funding of benefits and services for people with mental disability at a meeting of the Committee on Public Funding for Psychiatric Services.
Annelle Primm, M.D., recently appointed director of APA's Department of Minority and National Affairs, proposes initiatives she would like to undertake with members of the Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities.
Jason Young (above), communications manager in the Department of Government Relations, teaches 90 APA fellows, including APA/SAMHSA fellow Sherri Simpson, M.D. (below) of Baylor College of Medicine, how to craft an effective message when talking to the media and policymakers about mental health and psychiatric issues. Afterward, the fellows went to Capitol Hill, where they had a chance to practice their advocacy skills.
Jason Young (above), communications manager in the Department of Government Relations, teaches 90 APA fellows, including APA/SAMHSA fellow Sherri Simpson, M.D. (below) of Baylor College of Medicine, how to craft an effective message when talking to the media and policymakers about mental health and psychiatric issues. Afterward, the fellows went to Capitol Hill, where they had a chance to practice their advocacy skills.
