DB Officers Address Board

Steve Brasington, M.D. (top right), president of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia, and Eric Steckler, M.D., president of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Washington Psychiatric Society, address the Board last month as part of a program in which district branch officers discuss local issues with APA Trustees (see Board Address Combat Care in Veterans).

Brasington, who is director of mental health at Portsmouth Naval Base Hospital, urged APA to educate nonmilitary psychiatrists about the unique needs of veterans, particularly those who have served in combat, and about the culture of the military. He also said that members of his district branch want APA's advocacy efforts to convince the government to shift its health care emphasis from cost to quality of care. He emphasized as well that after the massacre at Virginia Tech, he and many other district branch members are concerned about the easy availability of guns.

Steckler called on APA to devote more of its programs to addressing the needs of psychiatrists in private practice, including reviving the private-practice caucus, and urged the Board to take steps to combat insurers' increasing demands for preauthorization for psychiatric care. He also said that "APA needs to find ways to accommodate and encourage more dialogue among competing interests in APA."