Psychiatric Foundation Succeeds in Public-Education Mission

Last month we held a retreat for our Board of Trustees Executive Committee. We met for two days and worked on a number of key issues that, through these columns, I will be reporting to you over the coming months. We started off our meeting with presentations by the Board president and executive director of each of our three affiliates or subsidiaries—American Psychiatric Publishing (APPI), American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE), and American Psychiatric Foundation (APF). Each is doing great work on behalf of APA.

Let me begin with showcasing the work of our foundation. This year marks the 18th year the APF, the educational and philanthropic arm of APA, has been working to foster a better understanding of mental illness and, in the process, break down the walls of stigma that surround it.

Through collaborations with stakeholders and the building of new relationships with industries not directly involved in health care, the APF, headed by President Richard Harding, M.D., and Executive Director Paul Burke, has demonstrated how powerful and important our foundation is. Its efforts in public education about mental illness and its treatment, its research to improve access to care, the promotion of mental health in underserved communities, and its outreach to medical students make a vital contribution to APA's mission.

Over time, the APF has expanded its approach and is forming active partnerships on a number of important projects to support the mental health of all our citizens, particularly the young and those serving our nation in the military.

Our foundation has partnered with public television to distribute the mental-health-focused television series “Healthy Minds” nationally. We are, through television, providing information to the general public about mental health in ways that have previously not been undertaken. To complement this, the APF is developing 60-second public-service announcements called “Mental Health Minute” to provide key information to the lay audience on their local television stations.

The mental health of military members continues to be a priority for psychiatry. The APF has led the way, through its partnership with Give an Hour, in providing our membership the opportunity to give an hour of free mental health service to veterans, troops, and their families. The Give an Hour network has now grown to 4,400 volunteer providers nationwide.

The APF also provides grants to community organizat ions and schools to implement its signature education program, Typical or Troubled, which educates school personnel who closely interact with adolescents to identify the presence of mental illness warning signs and recognize when intervention might be needed. Typical or Troubled is active in 27 states, involving more than 125 school districts and serving more than 10,000 school personnel.

This summer the city of Albuquerque, N.M., will begin implementing the Typical or Troubled program in approximately 46 middle and high schools, where it is expected to impact the lives of nearly 94,000 students.

Our foundation is also leading the way in raising awareness in the business community about the critical importance of mental health care. Through its Partnership for Workplace Mental Health program, the APF is working with employers to advance effective approaches to mental health by combining the knowledge and experience of APA and our employer partners.

The APF also provides grants and awards. One such grant program is the Helping Hands Grant Program, which encourages medical students to participate in community mental health service activities, particularly those focused on underserved populations. The APF, through its Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health, also recognizes psychiatrists, other health professionals, and mental health programs and organizations that have undertaken innovative efforts to raise awareness of mental illness in underserved minority communities.

The APF has a distinguished Board of Directors that includes members from the psychiatric profession, as well as lay members with an interest in mental health who come from various walks of life, such as business, law, and other professions. We appreciate their hard work in helping us raise funds, award grants, and develop new programs.

Each of these programs contributes to the foundation's efforts to achieve its mission of educating the public that mental illnesses are real and can be reliably diagnosed and effectively treated. It is an entirely self-supporting organization and relies on grants from APA and industry, as well as contributions from APA members. All contributions made to APF are tax deductible and support its efforts to run and distribute its programs, grants, and awards.

I encourage you to help us further the profession of psychiatry by making a donation to the APF, either online at<www.psychfoundation.org> or by calling Lindsey McClenathan, APF development officer, at (703) 907-8503.▪