CANDIDATES FOR AREA 5 TRUSTEE: Mary Helen Davis, M.D.

Our APA is the public voice of psychiatry. Our professional organization serves to unify the voices of our membership, to preserve and protect the integrity of our profession, and to provide us with what we need to care for the mental health needs of our patients. I love being a psychiatrist, a clinician with 25 years of caring for patients in both the academic as well as private sector. A member of APA since medical school, service in organized medicine is an important part of my professional identity. I am proud to represent the voice of psychiatry from the classroom to the clinic, in both the lay and medical community, to licensing and regulatory boards and to decision- and policymakers in all levels of government.

It has been my privilege to be your representative over the last three years on the Board of Trustees. I take this responsibility seriously and am committed to the position and to the work involved. I have diligently worked at improving communication between the Board of Trustees and Area 5 leadership in the Assembly, as well as with the executive directors of our district branches. Although honored to serve in a national leadership position, I remain dedicated to not only integrating the goals and mission of our organization on a state and local level but to bringing the voice of the membership and state association to the Board. I believe in leadership in practice, not merely in position. I have gained insight over the last three years serving on various committees and chairing a Board work group on issues facing active duty military, veterans, and their families. The work product of this group contributed to fact sheets distributed to Congress on Advocacy Day and resulted in the formation of a new component to continue to address the emerging psychiatric needs of those who have served in the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, as well as the professional needs of the members who provide treatment for this population. I have valued opportunities to hear presentations from district branch presidents as they convey the challenges faced in their state association or district branch. Area 5 can be proud of presentations from Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Uniformed Services.

It is a challenging time in psychiatry and health care. I would like the opportunity to serve an additional three years as your representative to the Board, continuing to advocate for the issues important to our membership and the patients we serve. I remain committed to my original advocacy platform regarding issues of membership, privacy, scope of practice, and coalition building. I hope to be able to utilize the experience gained as we chart the course and challenges of the future. We need to prepare and develop policy on technology, alternative health care delivery systems, emerging needs of our veterans and other populations, clinical competency assessment, and regulatory changes, as well as the myriad of other issues facing our profession and patients. At the same time, we face challenges of how to revitalize our organization, maintain membership, and meet the diverse needs of our members.

Over the past three years I have been constantly amazed and proud of how much our professional organization accomplishes especially due to the dedication of the members and staff who serve on various committees and components. At the same time, I am disheartened at how difficult it appears to be to make our general membership aware of all that their state and national organizations accomplish. If you are reading this, then you are probably already involved in APA; please keep your involvement active, vote in this election, and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Share your voice and opinions with the leadership in your district branch, and feel free to contact me at [email protected].

I very much would like to continue to be the Area 5 representative to the Board, but more importantly I would like every member of our Area to know that they have access to the Board, that their concerns are important, and that they have a venue to be heard and represented.