Building Partnerships, Leading the Way

In early September, I had the pleasure of spending an entire week seeing APA partnership building in action.

The week began in the company of colleagues and working with officials of the Department of Health and Human Services in a faith and mental health collaboration effort. In addition to HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D., and APA Immediate Past President Anita Everett, M.D., other participants included government officials, psychiatrists, psychologists, faith leaders, and family members from around the country. The day included an ambitious agenda about how to incorporate the spiritual aspects of patients’ lives into the therapeutic interventions we offer. It was clear by the end of the day that APA’s Mental Health: A Guide for Faith Leaders has proven to be a valuable resource for mental health professionals as well as faith leaders, and I am committed to assuring the guide is updated in collaboration with many of the organizations at the meeting.

Following this meeting, I had the honor of doing a “fireside chat” as well as speaking at the first-ever panel on mental health held by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) at its 48th legislative conference in Washington, D.C. As an organization whose aim is to advance the global black community through education and the development of new policy and leaders, the CBCF event was the perfect place to talk about the steps that are needed for black legislators and mental health professionals to work together to meet the mental health needs of black Americans. I spoke about the need for more and better cultural competency training for all psychiatrists and creating a stigma-reduction campaign to promote greater willingness to talk about mental health issues among black Americans.

This exciting opportunity was followed by APA’s fall ritual known as the September component meetings. Although smaller than I remember from my own early career days, these internal “partnerships” are still the one place where members get to see the inner workings of APA going at maximum speed. Different from APA’s deliberative governance bodies, the APA components are the cogs that keep the engine of APA moving. Tasks, actions, and recommendations begin in the discussions held by these member “partnership” groups over a few days in September and result in consensus resource documents and position statements that represent a framework for all that we do in APA in support of our members and the patients we serve. If you want to join in this work, now is the time to research the various components and let President-elect Bruce Schwartz, M.D., know of your interest in this work. Please send the name of the component on which you would like to work along with a one-page description of your background, experience, and qualifications to [email protected].

The week ended with a meeting to discuss how APA might develop and maintain a relationship with external groups to assure that persons with mental illness in jails and prisons receive the highest quality services available. The work begun by APA in the Stepping Up Initiative has resulted in policy and practice changes in some parts of the country, and I believe that we must now reframe that strategy into a psychiatrically driven initiative in which APA works with external groups to develop evidence-informed policies and programs for this growing population. I will keep you updated as we continue working on a proposal to support this work.

I sincerely hope that APA will be a part of more events like this in the future. While it may not be a pleasant message to deliver, our representatives in government, Congress, and the philanthropic communities need to hear that the mental health care needs of thousands of Americans in many communities and practice settings are not being met.

We will continue to work with all these groups to address the health inequities, workforce issues, gaps in care, and stigma experienced by those with mental illness until all Americans can access the high-quality care they deserve. ■