The New American Psychiatric Association: 2015 in Review

Engaging in strategic planning: Dr. Summergrad completed the difficult but necessary task of evaluating everything that APA does and setting priorities based on a strategic plan. Input was collected from all stakeholders including the most extensive member survey in APA’s recent history. We identified four priorities so that the administration could align existing programs with the list of priorities. This plan will guide our organization for years to come.

Finding a new home for APA: The lease for our current building in Arlington, Va., expires at the end of 2017, and the Board of Trustees struggled with where APA’s headquarters should be situated. We carefully analyzed whether we should lease or buy another space and where the space should be located. The decision, based on careful review of what was best for APA from a financial perspective, was to lease new space at the Washington, D.C., waterfront with an option to buy in several years.

Leading efforts to deal with health care reform, collaborative/integrated care models, and ensuring parity. A Board of Trustees work group was appointed to develop resources for educating federal and state policymakers, regulatory agencies, and payers regarding the role of psychiatrists in organized systems of care. As we know, models of health care delivery are changing, and we are being proactive about how our members will fit into the new systems of care. We also are educating patients about parity, participating in lawsuits, and filing amicus briefs when insurance companies are violating parity laws.

Increasing advocacy for reducing American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) requirements for maintenance of certification (MOC): Our members feel increasingly burdened by all of the regulatory requirements to practice psychiatry. With the strong recommendation of the APA Assembly, the Board advocated that the ABPN request that the ABMS eliminate the Part 4 (Performance in Practice) requirement for MOC. The ABPN responded by making the requirement for peer review or patient feedback optional. APA has also begun working more collaboratively with the ABPN in making the MOC requirements more reasonable and developing creative and less onerous methods for demonstrating that psychiatrists are continuing to engage in lifelong learning. For example, APA recently nominated eight APA members to work on an ABPN committee to improve the MOC process. Most of these members participated in the Assembly MOC committee. They are all in full-time clinical practice and engage actively in MOC.

Being proactive in legislative advocacy: Dr. Levin has hired a new legislative team that is working at the federal and state levels. We had a state advocacy conference in October to help district branches and state associations in their advocacy activities. We are also working closely with legislators to be involved in drafting legislation that will help our patients. One of our big successes in 2015 was the passage of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act to improve the mental health care of our veterans. Dr. Levin and Dr. Summergrad were present when President Obama signed the bill into law. APA staff members are now working closely with Republican and Democratic legislators in both the House and the Senate in the crafting of mental health bills that we hope will be passed in 2016. Lawmakers from both parties are coming to us for advice about mental health legislation.

Improving our communication with our members and with the outside world: Earlier this year, we developed a new unified brand that communicates who we are and what we do: “Medical Leadership for Mind, Brain and Body.” We also created a new website. In addition, we are being proactive in responding to events that stigmatize our patients. For example, when the fashion designer Kenneth Cole put up a billboard in New York City stigmatizing our patients by associating gun violence with mental illness, we joined with other advocacy groups to urge him to remove the billboard. We also used blogs and tweets to condemn the stigmatizing message. In addition, we have proactively challenged misleading and stigmatizing media messages including television shows and media reports.

Supporting early intervention programs: Through the work of the APA Foundation, we have supported and developed programs to identify mental health problems to allow early intervention. These programs include working with schools (“Typical or Troubled” program), working with judges, working with employers, and working with faith-based leaders.

Increasing access to care for our patients through telepsychiatry: Areas of the country have limited access to care because of geographic issues, for example, patients who live in rural areas. To improve this situation, APA is developing a toolkit for psychiatrists to use telepsychiatry to care for these patients.

Focusing on marginalized patient populations: APA is bringing attention to the tragedy of having our jails and prisons serve as the nation’s de facto largest psychiatric hospitals. I have participated in a congressional briefing about this issue (Psychiatric News, November 20), and we are working with other stakeholders in organizing the “Stepping Up” conference from April 17 to 19 that will train personnel in county-based programs on best practices in developing plans to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails.

Establishing the APEX awards. APA is using our stature as a national organization with over 36,000 members to highlight issues related to our patients. We have established the new APEX (American Psychiatric Excellence) awards. The APEX awards will become like the Kennedy Center awards and each year will reward and recognize deserving recipients, especially those who use a public forum, such as the entertainment, sports, media, and political arenas, to address important psychiatric issues. APA’s first APEX awards will be given on April 18, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. This year’s focus will be on the criminalization of people with mental illness.