What Happens in Congress Today Affects Your Patients Tomorrow

For early career psychiatrists, the future is now, says Lama Bazzi, M.D., the early career psychiatrist (ECP) trustee on APA’s Board and a member of the Board of Directors of the APA political action committee (APAPAC).

“Although as early career psychiatrists, we may be at the busiest phase of our professional lives—building our careers while also starting or raising families—we are the ones who are going to be impacted in the future by decisions that are made by policymakers today,” Bazzi said.

She urged all psychiatrists, at whatever stage they are in their career, to become involved with and support APAPAC. But as an early career psychiatrist and representative to the board for that cohort of APA’s membership, Bazzi believes the call to participate in advocacy is especially urgent.

“We don’t practice psychiatry in a vacuum; our professional lives and the lives of our patients are shaped by what happens at the executive level of government, in Congress, and in state legislatures,” Bazzi said.

She urged members to attend the APA Annual Meeting in San Diego and visit the APA Advocacy booths located in the Exhibit Hall and outside of the registration area in the convention center and learn how to become involved in APA’s advocacy activities.

APAPAC is the political arm of APA, the voice for APA and its members on Capitol Hill and APA’s best instrument for getting more friends of psychiatry elected to Congress. APAPAC plays a vital role in APA’s advocacy efforts, giving psychiatry a seat at the table in the health care policy arena. The APAPAC Board of Directors is composed of 13 psychiatrists from around the country, as well as ex-officio members including APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.

Importantly, APAPAC supports candidates on both sides of the aisle who have demonstrated an understanding of and support for the profession and people with mental illness. “Whatever your political opinions and whichever party you support, as psychiatrists we all want the same things,” Bazzi said. “We want access to care for our patients, we want to be able to provide our patients the very highest quality treatment, and we want to be fairly reimbursed for our work. Supporting the PAC is not so much about politics as it is about supporting what is best for our patients. That’s why I feel so passionate about APAPAC.”

Bazzi graduated from medical school in Lebanon and did her psychiatry residency at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn. She then completed a forensic fellowship at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Today, she is director of the inpatient unit at Maimonides Mental Health Center, also in Brooklyn, where she and colleagues work with a diverse community of patients—“many of whom are underserved and really need a lot of intensive care,” she said.

It was during her residency that she began her involvement with APA. At the 2009 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, where she had a poster on display, Bazzi encountered staff representatives from APAPAC in the Exhibit Hall.

“They were talking about what APA does for its members and how federal and state policy affects us as physicians and affects our patients,” she said. “This was really impressive to me. I didn’t at the time appreciate what APA does for us and what APAPAC advocacy does to help us and our patients. It was then I began to learn how our practices and our patients are affected by politics.”

Bazzi was moved to action. “I felt that as someone who had the privilege of training in psychiatry, I needed to get involved and become active in APAPAC,” she said. She was nominated for membership on the APAPAC Board of Directors by APAPAC Board Chair Charles Price, M.D., and was appointed by APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D.

For Bazzi, supporting APAPAC is an investment in the future. “If you opt out of participating, that’s your one protest—and it’s your last chance,” she said. “If you join and express your ideas and say what you think, then you become part of a process that is always ongoing, and you become a part of a larger group of fellow psychiatrists working for the same thing.”

She urged members to have a conversation with staff representatives of APAPAC and learn how they, too, can support APAPAC.

“APA is a member organization at the end of the day,” she said. “I have never met a group as open and willing to change according to what the members want.” ■