Local Psychiatry Leaders Describe Stresses DBs Face

Approve a new practice guideline on assessing and treating posttraumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder (see below).

Join an amicus brief in the case ofRoper v. Simmons, which is before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case challenges the constitutionality of allowing states to execute individuals who committed a capital crime while they were 16 or 17 years old. Executions of those aged 15 or younger are already prohibited (see page 1).

Eliminate the 90-day additional “grace period” that allows members to pay their APA dues up to 15 months beyond the due date. With this change, members will have to pay their dues within one calendar year of the actual due date—thus still leaving a 12-month grace period—so that they will, for example, have to pay 2003 dues, which were due by December 31, 2003, no later than December 31, 2004, to avoid being dropped from membership.

Implement a new structure for determining dues and annual meeting registration fees for international members based on the wealth of the country in which they reside. There are four categories of countries—high income, upper-middle income, lower-middle income, and low income. International members (there are about 1,120) in high-income countries would pay dues of $180, equal to dues paid by members in the United States in their first three years of membership. Those in upper-middle-income countries would pay $150; those in lower-middle-income countries $100; and those in low-income countries $50. The country classification is the one the World Bank uses and is based on gross national income.

Annual meeting registration fees would be $395, $350, $275, and $200, respectively, for the same four country categories.

Establish a work group to review a recommendation from the Assembly that the medical director serve as the Association's chief executive officer. Currently, the president, who is elected each year, is the chief executive officer, and the medical director is the chief operating officer. The Assembly and many Board members believed that such a change would bring consistency to the administration of a complex and multifocused organization and allow it to fulfill its goals better. If approved, the proposal will require a change in the APA Bylaws.

Circulate a proposal for changing APA elections in which members would no longer vote for a president-elect candidate. Instead, under a“ ladder plan” suggested by the APA Nominating Committee, the highest office for which members would vote would be vice president, with the winning candidate then ascending to the president-elect and then president positions. The idea behind the ladder plan is that the vice president would have an extra year to learn what the role of APA president involves and begin initiatives.

Because the committee recognized the controversial nature of the proposal, it recommended that the Board circulate it to the Assembly and to APA committees before the Board takes a final vote on the issue.

Approved in executive session the presidential appointment of a task force to expand short- and long-term strategies to address scope-of-practice issues. The strategies will include public education, government relations, and access to psychiatric care in rural and underserved areas.