Psychiatrists Confer With Hawaii Lawmakers

APA and AMA leaders met with Hawaii Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona and state legislators and leaders of other specialty groups at a reception held at the Waikiki Aquarium during last month’s AMA House of Delegates meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In a state where psychologist prescribing has been a recurrent legislative challenge, the event—hosted by the APA Section Council on Psychiatry, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, and the Hawaii Medical Association—was an opportunity to introduce leaders from the “house of medicine” to Hawaii’s political leadership. A number of the 13 legislators attending the reception hold positions on key health committees in the Hawaii state legislature. And for icing on the cake, the entire event was sponsored by the Hawaii Convention Center.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Akaka, M.D., who was instrumental in pulling the event together, told Psychiatric News that the reception is evidence of the increasingly close ties between psychiatry and the AMA. Virtually every member of the AMA Board of Trustees, including AMA President Donald Palmisano, M.D., and House Speaker Nancy Nielsen, M.D., Ph.D., attended the reception, as did leaders from a number of other specialty societies. Akaka is an alternate APA delegate to the AMA House of Delegates.

The following day, APA and the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association were formally recognized for the event on the floor of the House of Delegates.

The reception and a first-ever leadership luncheon between APA leaders and the AMA executive board (see story on facing page) were highlights of the interim meeting of the House of Delegates that saw the emergence of psychiatrists in key AMA leadership positions. Jeremy Lazarus, M.D., chair of APA’s Council on Advocacy and Public Policy, began his term at the meeting as vice speaker of the house, and APA Trustee-at-Large David Fassler, M.D., served as chair of the AMA’s Rules and Credentials Committee.

Akaka said the reception grew out of a similar event hosted by the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association for APA leaders in 1998, the last time the AMA house met in Honolulu. Seven members of Hawaii’s legislature attended that event, which provided an opportunity for face-to-face interaction with legislators and educational conversations concerning psychiatric issues.

Following that meeting, the APA delegation brought a resolution before the AMA’s Specialty Society Section in June 1999 to bring the AMA back to Honolulu in 2003, at a time when the AMA was strongly considering not returning. That resolution was eventually passed by the House of Delegates, assuring the return of the meeting this year. And APA itself has agreed to hold its annual meeting in Honolulu in 2011, moves that have not gone unnoticed by Hawaii’s tourism industry.

“We have formed a very good working relationship with the Hawaii legislature, and between the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association and the national APA,” Akaka said. “We wanted to take it the next step by creating a setting where APA could meet some of its own objectives by networking with other specialties within the house of medicine.” ▪