Assembly Presents Courage Award, Takes Other Actions

Soon after two natural disasters took the lives of more than 200,000 Haitians and laid waste to much of her native country of Haiti in 2010, including much of its mental health system, psychiatrist Marie-Claude Rigaud, M.D., knew she had to step in and lend her expertise to help relieve the mental health crisis that was sure to develop.

David Hathcox

She quickly became the prime mover behind the first Haitian Mental Health Summit, held in Miami in June 2010, which she organized with the help of APA, the World Psychiatric Association, and the World Health Organization. This summit soon led to the formation of the nonprofit organization, Rebati Sante Mentale Haiti, the goal of which was to oversee the building of a mental health system that is focused on evidence-based treatments. She now chairs the organization. She has helped organize two additional summits on mental health care in Haiti in the last four years, which have led to psychiatric medications and other relief supplies being delivered to Haiti.

For her contributions to remedying the many ills that beset Haiti’s mental health system as it faced a painful recovery and rebuilding process, the APA Assembly last month honored Rigaud, who lives in Aurora, Ill., with its annual Profile of Courage Award. The award “recognizes an APA member who has taken, at risk to her or his professional and personal status, an ethical stand against intimidating pressure for the good of patient care. ...”

Other Actions Taken

Also at the November meeting, Assembly members approved nominations for the offices of speaker-elect and recorder. Nominated for speaker-elect are Assembly Recorder Daniel Anzia, M.D., of Illinois, and Robert Roca, M.D., a representative of the Maryland Psychiatric Society. The nominees for recorder are Ludmilla De Faria, M.D., of Florida, who is the Minority/Underrepresented Group representative on the Assembly Executive Committee, and Theresa Miskimen, M.D., a representative of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association.

The election will be held at the Assembly’s next meeting, which will be in May 2015, in Toronto. At that time, current Speaker-elect Glenn Martin, M.D., will succeed Jenny Boyer, M.D., as speaker.

The Assembly also voted to

• Approve the Practice Guideline for Psychiatric Evaluation of Adults, which the Board of Trustees will address at its meeting later this month.

• Approve an APA position statement on “firearm access, acts of violence, and relationships to mental illness and mental health services.” The statement has been forwarded to the Board of Trustees, which must approve all proposed APA position statements before they become APA policy. Among the topics addressed are actions that can minimize firearm injury and violence, need for research on the causes of firearm violence, reasonable restrictions on firearm access, and a discussion of the relationship between gun violence and mental illness.

• Endorse a proposal concerning e-prescribing of controlled substances that urges APA support “for the option for electronically prescribed controlled substances as aligned with federal regulations and express the importance of adopting such standards. ...” The Assembly recommended forwarding this issue to APA’s delegation to the AMA and that APA develop a position statement on this issue.

• Urge APA to have the Council on Advocacy and Government Relations develop a plan to address the issue of compensation and benefits of psychiatrists employed at medical centers run by the federal Bureau of Prisons, where pay and benefits are “substantially below community levels, including other federally employed physicians.” The paper noted that this pay discrepancy hampers the bureau’s ability to recruit and retain psychiatrists.

• Support formation of an APA task force to focus on including buprenorphine as an integral part of treatment for substance abuse disorders in psychiatric and primary care settings and on integrating buprenorphine training into residency programs. ■