APA Institute: Theme Park For Clinicians

This year’s Institute on Psychiatric Services offers continuing psychiatric education to clinicians working in diverse practice settings. It will be held in Orlando, reputed to be the most visitor-friendly setting in the United States.

Now is the time to make your reservations for APA’s exciting fall meeting. All sessions will be held at the Renaissance Orlando Resort from October 10 to 14. I am sure that many attendees will want to extend their stays beyond these dates to enjoy the many attractions that this area offers.

APA President Richard Harding M.D., selected “Multidisciplinary Roles in the 21st Century” as the theme of this year’s institute. The Scientific Program Committee is enthusiastic about the opportunity that this theme gives us to exchange ideas with our colleagues in primary care, other medical specialties including substance abuse, and allied mental health practitioners. To enhance these interchanges, we have scheduled 50 sessions cosponsored by allied groups.

The program is focused on clinically useful information, which will include up-to-the-minute research. Various formats are utilized to enhance learning opportunities and provide time for active interchange of ideas and experiences with 500 presenters. We will offer medical updates, clinical consultations with experts, workshops, symposia, and discussion groups. The discussion groups are limited to 25 participants so that in-depth discussion can take place. President Harding will lead one on how the new privacy regulations will affect your practice. He had considerable input during the development of the regulations as a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

There will be two debates. The first, organized by APA’s Elections Committee, will feature the nominees for APA president-elect. The second, organized by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, is “Should faith-based mental health and substance abuse services have liberalized access to federal funding?”

We have scheduled a variety of multimedia sessions, several forums, and six caucuses for members with diverse interests all the way from rural-psychiatry to criminal-justice settings. There will be a psychiatric service achievement awards session and many other innovative programs presented.

There are 25 lectures scheduled. These include the George Tarjan, Patient Advocacy, and Alexandra Symonds Award lectures. There will be 12 industry-supported breakfast, lunch, and dinner symposia. Due to the more intimate setting of the institute, these symposia are less crowded and more comfortable than those at APA’s annual meeting. There also will be an exhibit hall, book displays, and poster sessions.

If all that is not enough, we are offering 12 CME courses, including a special eight-hour course on office-based buprenorphine treatment. This is given in conjunction with the APA Council on Addiction Psychiatry and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. This course can be used to qualify physicians to prescribe buprenorphine for treatment of opioid-dependent patients in their offices.

Particularly welcome at the institute are medical students and residents, who will receive a warm welcome and find that many sessions have been planned specifically for them, including seminars on leadership and career development and a meet-the-experts luncheon. Bristol-Myers Squibb fellows, the future leaders of psychiatry, will each make one or more presentations.

Orlando is a marvelous site for this meeting. The Renaissance Orlando Resort is located at the entrance to Sea World, an internationally famous attraction. The hotel is an easy 11 miles from the airport (15 minutes from downtown Orlando) and offers easy access to Universal Studios, Epcot Center, Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and MGM Studios. To be sure that everyone is happy, stimulated, and fulfilled, Dr. Andrew Cutler and his local arrangement committee have developed a program that will meet your highest expectations. Watch future issues of Psychiatric News for further details.

The institute’s preliminary program begins on the facing page. A copy of the program, which includes additional information and registration and housing forms, is available by calling APA at (888) 357-7924 or visiting APA’s Web site at www.psych.org. You can also register online for this meeting. ▪