APA Reflects on Its Past And Looks to Its Future In Philadelphia

Psychiatrists returned to the city of their profession’s birth last month to participate in APA’s 155th annual meeting since its founding in 1844. Aptly greeting meeting attendees at the Opening Session were Benjamin Franklin and his colleague, Benjamin Rush, who was not only a signer of the Declaration of Independence but is also considered the father of American psychiatry. The two old timers, however, did not eclipse a stirring speech by outgoing APA President Richard Harding, M.D., as he urged his fellow psychiatrists to become more involved in organized psychiatry at a time when access to affordable quality patient care is becoming hampered by more and more obstacles (see page 1).

APA last met in Philadelphia in 1994, when the Association celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary. The Pennsylvania Convention Center, the meeting’s headquarters, had just opened at that time. This year’s meeting attendees were pleased to see that construction around the convention center had been completed, making it possible for meeting sessions to be centralized in attractive new settings. Traversing the Market Street area nearby was also more enjoyable, which led visitors to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Pavilion, and a new Visitors Center just blocks away.

Next year’s annual meeting will be held in San Francisco from May 17 to 22.