Candidate for Area 4 Trustee
About the Candidate
Fellow, 1971
•.
Professor and Director of Psychiatric Training, Northwestern University, 2002- ; Program and System Analyst, VISN12, VA, 2000- ; Part-Time Private Practice, 1990-
•.
President, American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002-
•.
APA Assembly: Representative, Illinois Psychiatric Society, 1999-2002
•.
President, Illinois Psychiatric Society, 1998-99
•.
President, American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training, 1991-92
•.
Faculty, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, 2000-
Candidate’s Views
APA reorganization has begun a process of renewal, but much still remains to be accomplished. APA and its district branches continue to lose practicing psychiatrists as members (the number of practicing psychiatrists who are APA members dropped from 35,800 in 1998 to 31,000 in 2002). APA must stabilize its membership. A strengthened APA can powerfully develop and project an agenda that speaks to the issues confronting our profession.
The Issues
APA: Reorganization must continue. All APA elements must be examined to determine which are useful. Do they identify and solve problems? Are they cost-effective in fulfilling their mission?
Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy: APA must address how to integrate pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy into practice.
Public Policy: APA must be a visible participant in deliberation on mental heath policy. It must advocate for the abolition of mental health carveouts and fight managed care companies when they insist that psychiatrists can only prescribe medications.
Relationship With District Branches: APA must be more effective in supporting its branches and in aiding members as they deal with hospital budgetary decisions that harm practice.
Public Perception of Psychiatry: APA must school the American public that our unique skills are critical. Policymakers often believe that others are as qualified as we are to prescribe medication and/or psychotherapy. APA must clarify our relationship with drug companies; often we look like their agents.
Education and Training: APA must ensure that psychiatrists are current in their knowledge and skills and must work to revitalize medical student education in psychiatry.
The Needed Actions
APA: All APA constituencies—including district branches and all members—must be allowed and encouraged to contribute to the evolving APA reorganization.
Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy: APA must develop and promulgate a consensus on our core competencies. It must address when a psychiatrist provides both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy and when these two can be split. Psychiatrists, not administrators, must determine treatment.
Public Policy: APA must develop a focused, prioritized public policy agenda. While we oppose psychologist prescribing, we must assert, “Education, not legislation, must determine the scope of each mental health discipline’s practice.” We must develop new approaches to assure patients access to psychiatrists throughout our country.
District Branches: APA, with district branch input, must develop new ways to govern this relationship.
Public Perception of Psychiatry: APA needs new strategies to communicate the differences between psychiatrists and other mental health providers. APA must cap its reliance upon drug companies and assure the public that we are not their agents.
Education and Training: APA must assure psychiatry adequate time in medical school. In residency, pharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy, as well as awareness of cultural diversity and its impact upon behavior, must be taught as the basis of our field. New programs to enable noncertified psychiatrists to obtain certification must be developed.
This is only a preliminary outline of issues and needed action. We must keep them in focus as we continue APA’s reorganization and advocacy for our patients and our profession.
Primary Loci of Work and Sources of Income
Work:
60%—Northwestern Medical School
25%—VISN 12 Veterans Administration
15%—Private practice
Income:
50%—Northwestern University
25%—VISN 12 Veterans Administration
25%—Private practice
Information & Authors
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History
Published online: 6 December 2002
Published in print: December 6, 2002
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