Board Moves on New Headquarters, Discusses National Event for 2016
Abstract
The APA Excellence Awards will be presented as part of an annual event focusing national attention on major mental health issues, with awards recognizing achievements in public policy, public education and raising awareness, and innovative community-based work.
Further action on a new headquarters for APA in 2017 and the initiation in 2016 of an annual event that will bring major stakeholders to Washington, D.C., for a forum on a mental health topic of critical importance were the headliner actions by APA’s Board of Trustees at its July meeting.
Rahn Bailey, M.D., chair of the Membership Committee, presents his report to Trustees. He noted that as of May, there were 37,738 APA members, an increase of 3.4 percent since January. He also reminded them that the new dues payment deadline of March 31 goes into effect in 2016.
Trustees voted to authorize APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., to execute a lease on a property at 800 Maine Avenue, in the southwest district of the capital, beginning in 2017 when APA’s current lease on its headquarters in Arlington, Va., expires. The lease on the new property also includes an option to purchase the property in 2020.
In December 2014 the Board approved the search for a new property after an in-depth analysis by the Ad Hoc Work Group on Real Estate, chaired by APA Treasurer Frank Brown, M.D. In discussing the group’s findings, the Board felt that the strongest option was purchasing a property in Washington, D.C. Among the reasons: the importance of proximity to Capitol Hill for advocacy, the historically strong performance of real estate values in the District of Columbia, and the ability to control use of space and influence the design of the property. At the Board’s March meeting, Trustees voted to submit a letter of intent and initiate a due-diligence review for the purchase of the property at what is known as the Wharf at 800 Maine Avenue (see article on facing page).
Under the terms of the lease agreement, APA will move to the new property on a rental basis and have a minimum of two years to assess the property and determine whether it will meet the Association’s current and long-term needs. “This is the best of all options for APA and its members and staff,” said Levin. “We will have a new home, close to the Capitol, and on better terms than we currently have, with an extended period of due diligence to ensure that the property is right for us before making a determination to purchase.
“This is an exciting time for APA,” he continued. “Leadership will keep members fully informed about this move and any future decision to purchase the property.”
Also approved at the meeting was the creation of the APA Excellence Awards, or APEX Awards, to be presented as a part of an annual event focusing national attention on a major issue on mental health. Awards will recognize outstanding achievements in three categories: public policy, public education and raising awareness, and innovative community-based work.
The first annual event in the series will be held April 17 to 19 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the criminalization of people with mental illness—an issue of special importance to APA President Renȳe Binder, M.D. In June, Binder led APA Trustees on a tour of San Quentin State Prison in California. In her president’s column last month in Psychiatric News, she wrote: “This is a problem that is truly national in its scope: In 44 states, the largest institutions housing people with severe psychiatric illness are prisons or jails. The costs are high and increasingly are understood to be unsustainable. Worse still, the toll on patients and on our communities is unacceptable.”
In a presentation to the Board about the new awards and annual event, APA Chief Communications Officer Jason Young said, “This will be an annual occasion for APA to convene stakeholders around an issue vital to patients and psychiatrists, bring them together in the same room, engage them in productive conversation, and celebrate the good work they are doing in communities around the country. It will be a major event, happening every year, and will help establish APA as a leader in the field of patient and professional advocacy.”
In other news, psychiatrist Gregory Dalack, M.D., who is chair of APA’s Registries Work Group, presented an overview of patient registries and how they are increasingly used in integrated care networks to extend psychiatric care to populations of patients (see article on facing page). Dalack, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and the department’s associate chair for education and academic affairs at the University of Michigan, was joined by Norman Kahn Jr., M.D., executive vice president and CEO of the Council on Medical Specialty Societies; William Rich, M.D., medical director of health policy at the American Academy of Ophthalmology; Terrence Cascino, M.D., president of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN); and Bruce Sigsbee, M.D., chair of the AAN’s Registry Committee.
These were among other actions taken by the Board:
Meeting fees: Trustees adjusted registration fees for the annual meeting, but recognizing the value of this member benefit, they did not increase member fees. Nonmember psychiatrists are encouraged to apply for APA membership now so they can register for the meeting at the member rates. More information can be accessed here.
Scheduling of advocacy conferences: The Board approved a change in scheduling for the State Advocacy Conference and the Advocacy Leadership Conference, so that each conference is held every other year.
International residents: Trustees voted to approve the recommendation of the Membership Committee to establish a new category of membership, international resident-fellow member. This category will include physicians enrolled in a psychiatry residency training program or fellowship in a psychiatry subspecialty outside of the United States and Canada, verified with a letter from the training program. ■
